I Married a Serial Killer
by mandymld
Summary: Takes Place in May of 2009: Someone is killing off the not so good citizens of Port Charles. Why? Meanwhile, Jason is working for a reunion with Elizabeth. The title is what my hubby said when he read the first few chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Lucky was working the night shift this week. Hoping to make it to Elizabeth's for breakfast, he was on his way out the door at the end of his shift. He knew that things weren't great between them, but he had hope now that she seemed to realize that Jason Morgan wasn't the savior she seemed to think. Maybe now she would realize that that thug was nothing more than washed up has been who would never stand up for himself.

Seeing his father coming in to bail out his latest partner-in-crime, Lucky just shook his head and walked away, wondering what his mother would think of the man he had become. "Spencer, call from a patrol officer. Something you need to see. Mac is on his way as well."

"Where to, Ashcroft?" he asked grabbing his car keys and hoping he could still make it to Elizabeth's place.

"Jake's." was the answer as he rushed out the door.

Arriving at the run down bar, he saw Mac get there at the same time. "Mac what is going on, all Ashcroft would tell me is that I needed to see something."

"You were on duty, all night, correct?" asked his boss without the usual pleasantries.

"Right, why?"

"You never left the station after you arrived at two yesterday, correct?"

"Mac what is going on?" he asked now annoyed with the questions.

"Harper sent me a text, but I needed to verify that before letting you into the crime scene."

"Crime scene?" he repeated, hating not knowing what was going on.

"Come." he said as they walked into the bar, they could see it was trashed. Someone had left quite a mess inside. Bar stools were knocked over and broken along with chairs and tables. "Looks like someone put up quite a fight."

Lucky spun around taken in the broken jukebox, the beer bottles that had been tossed around the room. "Sir, something strange, all they broke were tequila bottles, nothing else. Beer and tequila."

"Are you sure?" asked Lucky from behind Mac.

Harper walked out of the back and went outside to throw up. This was one of the worst crime scenes he had seen in a while and working in Port Charles that was saying something. Upon entering, he walked over to Mac and Lucky saying "CSU have already been here as well as the primary, but I told the coroner to not disturb the body until you had seen it. It's bad."

"Who is it?" asked Lucky and then he added "What was so important that I see?"

"This." said Harper as he showed the man the pictures that had been taken of the words on the floor.

Lucky read the words and felt something walk over his grave. "#1, and I promise only the first."

"So we have a serial killer on our hands. Where did the red paint come from? Did he bring it with him?"

"That isn't paint, it's blood. And this isn't the only message." said Harper grimly. Nodding at the officer standing in front of the stairs, he guided them to the office. Mac shivered when he saw the words actually on the wall, but Harper went right past them.

Inside were more warnings. "Repent all sinners." followed by "Lust, gluttony, sloth and envy."

"What kind of whack job did this?" asked an entering Agent Raynor.

"There are more." said Harper leading them to the stairs, walking up them he said "Don't touch the walls."

Mac read the messages, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."

"What does this one mean?" asked Lucky stopping at the words written in some foreign language.

"Ehay owhay ieslay ownday ithway ogsday akesway upway ithway easflay. Ooklay atway ethay ideovay apetay orfay ethay oofpray." announced Raynor.

"Okay, so you speak the language." said Lucky rolling his eyes.

"Its pig latin." said at the agent. "Translated it says 'He who lies down with dogs wake with fleas, then that the video tape is proof."

"Harper did you find a video tape, here?" asked Mac.

"No, here, just more messages including the one that I already told you about." he replied. Walking further on into a room, Lucky grimaced this had once been Jason's room. Entering he saw that the same frayed furniture that he recalled from all those years ago was still here.

Then he saw the writing on the wall opposite the room and froze. "Spencer, you of all people know that secrets can't remain hidden."

"What secret?" asked Raynor. He could tell that the detective knew something, but he could tell that the feckless man would not give on whatever it was he knew.

"Mac, I have no idea." said Lucky while inwardly he was sweating. He had more than a few secrets, one that if it came out would make him look like even more of a fool than he already felt. There was no way he was going to tell anyone that Jake wasn't his son.

"You had better not." answered his boss. Then he saw Harper nodding toward the back stairs. "The trail heads this way. More blood, they are testing it all."

"He or she left clues, Mac." said Harper as he followed the red arrows and soon led them to an abandoned strip club that was half burnt down. Entering the only weather proof area, Harper said "This was where they had a hot tub. Someone used it for the rest of the mess. This is the primary crime scene."

They got no further than the doorway than the stench of blood pushed them back. Harper handed out masks as they went in one at a time.

Mac kept his composure as Raynor and Lucky both fled the scene. "Harper, did you do what I asked?"

"Its in your squad car, Mac do you really think that Spencer is the key to solving this."

"Yes, he has some pretty big secrets. I want you to finish up here and meet me down at the address I gave you. We are not going by the book this time. I want this person caught before they kill someone I actually care about."

"Fine. I will get copies of all the forensics, what about Raynor?"

"He is going to want to lead, let him take it. We need to find out why they killed Coleman and if there are any other victims out there."

Mac waited until he got the call at his office informing him that the Mayor had asked the FBI for help, then pretended to storm out of the station angrily. Lucky had been seconded to the FBI to help with the case and Mac was happy about it, this way the annoying man would be out of his way.

"What is this place?" asked Harper when they entered his old office. After Mac explained, Harper looked at his boss in a new light.

"Where are they?" asked Mac as he set up his lap top computer and plugged in the memory card.

"Here." said Harper turning over his own photos of the crime scene. Mac uploaded them and started to use the enhancer to look at the words. "Do you think that Coleman knew his attacker?"

"I don't know. I think he did. The bar wasn't open at the time of the murder so either he was killed by someone he trusted or someone he didn't think to be a threat."

"So all we know for sure is that Coleman was killed with some sort of drug between 3AM and 9AM when the beer delivery guy arrived."

"Earlier more than likely. It took time to remove the organs, make the rest of the cuts, and drain the blood. Plus the writing was dry when I arrived."

"Okay, look at these cuts, there are no hesitation marks. This person just held some sort of sharp knife, most likely a scalpel and smoothly reached in and cut out the body parts. But why?"

Mac answered his phone then repeated what the coroner told him. "Thanks Roberts."

"So what are you thinking medical personnel?" asked Harper.

"I have to admit they are on the suspect list, but this kind of skill, I don't know too many people with it. Look at the marks, they are clean and neat."

"The drugs used were professional grade according to Roberts, who else would have access to them?"

Mac went to call Monica Quartermaine, the two of them attended family grief sessions together and he was well aware where she was the previous evening. They had been together, remembering their daughters along with several other crime victims at a service all night at St. Anne's.

Asking her about the uses for the organ, Monica said she would call him right back. Ten minutes, later she rang him. "Mac, there were several transplants last evening. Heart, lungs, corneas, livers and even a stomach transplant. what is going on?"

Taking her information, Mac used his old contacts with the Transplant list to find out that they had received them from GH. Finding out that so far there had been no rejections or infections, Mac explained what was going on. Then turning to Harper asked him to find out if Coleman had filled out the back of his license agreeing to be an organ donor.

He was rather surprised to find out he was. "Well that explains the remark about doing good in the after life."

"That is more than a little creepy. First giving him an overdose of drugs, then cutting into him while he was still alive and feeling the pain of it. Mac who has the nerves to do something like that?" asked Harper as he walked over to the window needing sunlight.

Mac knew that more than a few people without medical licenses had the skill, look at Morgan, he had the ability to do so. "I want you to be and personally contact all medical supply facilities. Find out about the stuff that went missing after the fire at GH as well."

Elizabeth was watching as Lucky played with Jake and Cameron. He tried to conceal it but she could see a difference in how he treated the boys now. It was subtle but it was there. Sighing, she helped Jake walk over to the jungle gym with a heavy heart.

Every time she saw Jason he was with someone, she had to wonder at times about the danger, had it ceased to exist or had it always been an excuse. Last time, he had given it to her, she had later found out he was screwing Sonny's little sister.

Either way the time was coming to make a decision. Stay in Port Charles and watch as the man she loved hanging out with the woman who had endangered her sons or leave.

She was leaning towards leaving, sick at the way Jason hadn't forgive AJ for what he had done to Michael but seemed to not care about what had been done to his own son. She knew one thing, she could and would never forgive him for endangering their son, nor his forgiving the woman who had done so.

She sometimes wondered, had Jason really been some sort of fantasy. A man who had treated his biological son as something to toss away and yet seemed to be able to be close to everyone else, was not the man she had thought she had fallen in love with. What happened to that man? When had Jason Morgan became this hypocrite he was today?

"Lucky, we have to go." she said walking over with Jake.

"But I just got here, I want to spend some time with the boys." he said.

Wondering why he sounded like a five year old, Elizabeth said "We have to meet up with Patrick and Emma. You should have called to cancel if you were going to be this late."

Wanting to make a remark, Lucky swallowed his words. He had no intention of losing her again, Elizabeth made his life easier, she took care of things, and he wanted that back. While he found that new girl at GH interesting, he had come to accept that he needed Elizabeth to take care of things for him.

"Cameron, I love you. You too, Jake." he added lamely before making sure Elizabeth was aware that he was taking the time with both boys. She would never accept anything other than that, so be it. He wanted his life back.

Walking through the park, he saw Jason talking to Sam and Spinelli and grimaced. What a fool, he thought as Sam leaned in to make a point and Spinelli seemed to beam with light at the closeness they shared.

Harper saw that Mac had accessed hospital records when he returned. "What did you find?"

"Mitchell Coleman's medical records were accessed last night. At four in the morning, less than an hour before the various hospitals came to the airport to pick up the organs. So we now have a time frame to work with." said Mac. "One odd thing, they also accessed one other file."

"Whose?"

"That is the weird part, Steve Hardy's files. The man has been dead for over fifteen years."

"This is Port Charles, maybe he is alive and kicking someplace." said Harper.

"No, but I am going to talk to Audrey, his widow, she might be able to shed some light on things. The computer says that the file was fixed."

They sat down on the edge of the desk as the computer ran the video file that Harper had found on Coleman. Five minutes later, Mac said. "Well we now know what they had on Coleman, as well as Spencer."

"I'm sorry Mac." said the detective. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing, I want to see why this was outed this way and by who."

After a breakfast he didn't want with the geek, Jason was returning to the warehouse when he heard a yelp down by the docks. Spinelli had fallen in something, when he stood he saw blood on the geeks hands and knees.

Walking closer he saw a bloody man's wallet and bouquet of white roses with red dripping across them. He loathed white roses, they always reminded him of painful things in the past.

With a bad feeling in his gut, he picked up the bloody leather wallet with his gloves and found it had no money or credit cards. There was nothing else inside, just a photo that he knew rather well.

A picture that was now dripping as blood flowed down it. Jason felt a coldness that went all the way down to his soul as the red ran across the family he had forsaken, long before they had ever formed. When the blood hit Elizabeth's chin, he swallowed the miserable feeling in his gut and went to track the blood.

Ignoring Spinelli's pleas, Jason followed the trail that lead to the old Deception offices. Arriving he walked up the stairs and into what used to be the photography studio.

Lucky Spencer was lying in a photographer's vat, white as a ghost with cuts all over his body. Jason reached over to take his pulse and accidentally knocked the sheet covering him a little. What he saw turned his stomach, Spencer's insides were gone. Someone had eviscerated the detective.

As the light came into the room, Jason saw the glint of something on the second wall, and turned. "Unlike you Morgan, I keep my promises, here lies body #2."

Jason felt his blood freeze as he pulled out his phone. Calling Diane he told her to meet him at the station if he got arrested, then called 911, he got the feeling that going with his first instinct would get him arrested. This man had obviously killed someone else already, and had set it up for him to find the body.

"911, WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?" He heard through the distance as he wondered if Elizabeth would blame him for this? Why not; she already blamed him for everything else? he thought to himself as he explained where he was and that Mac Scorpio needed to come down there immediately.

"Detective Spencer is dead, and according to a note, this is body number two." he said wearily as he heard Spinelli tripping as he entered the room. "Spinelli, sit down and don't touch anything, anything at all."

"Stone Cold, someone just called and left a message for you." he said shaken. "They said..." he could barely get it out, he was so scared for Sam, they had threatened the goddess, "They said that Sam was going to die for sins. But that you were going to be the one paying. That in the end, you could have prevented all this death and destruction, but that you had to know this was going to happen. That danger follows you around, or does it only follow you around while you are with your beloved."

As the police entered, Mac saw the message and knew it was too late. "Morgan, I don't supposed you care to tell me what secret you shared with Lucky Spencer?"

Diane arrived just as the coroner did, so Jason explained what he knew. "Is there anything else?" he asked Mac two hours later.

"Nothing at this minute, but don't leave town." he added.

Jason rushed off with Spinelli wondering who was trying to kill Sam now and how it was connected to Coleman and Lucky Spencer. When he drove down the boulevard close to Elizabeth's house, he hoped that Robin was there to help her through this. He had to catch this killer and he knew that he was the last person she would want to see right now.

Calling Max he had the guard go to Sam's place and protect her until they got there. Going home he showered and had Spinelli get the files about the other death. He had to find out what was going on if he was going to figure this out.

As he arrived at Sam's penthouse with Spinelli four and half hours later, they heard her talking to someone. Knocking, they were let in as Alexis grimaced but left. "Fair Samantha, are you okay?" cried out Spinelli. Max followed Alexis to the elevator after letting Jason know that no one had shown up.

"Of course, why?" she asked the two of them and asked what was going on.

As they told her what had happened, she twisted the knife a little deeper, saying "Poor Elizabeth, you know that Lucky and her were getting back together, this is going to devastate her. I wonder if she has heard about it yet."

Inwardly she felt bad for Lucky, he had been a good friend to her, but she was glad that Elizabeth would now know what it was like to lose someone she loved. To be mortal like the rest of us.

Jason felt sick, he had always known that no matter what, he would never measure up to Lucky in Elizabeth's heart, but for her to lose him that way... all he had ever wanted for her was to be happy, whether with him like he had always dreamed, or with Spencer if he was who she truly wanted.

"I am sure that Mac is with her now." he said trying to gain control of his emotions, he knew that a loss of control would be a disaster, too many people depended on his being stone cold, he thought while wishing for the one thing he could never have.

A do-over like life seemed to grant everyone but him. Carly had gotten them with Sonny, and her mother even Jax. Sonny was the king of the do-over, even Ric Lansing had gotten them, Spencer with Elizabeth, but Jason had to wonder, where was his do-over? All he wanted was a chance to go back with his memories, back to that day he taken the job with Sonny, walk way and never follow the path he did.

He listened as Sam didn't even seem to feel bad for her ex, as she seemed excited as she talked to Spinelli about what they had seen and the phone call. Jason listened half-heartedly wondering why this had become his life. Then what Spinelli was saying became clear.

"HOLD it, Spinelli repeat that again, word for word." he said to the geek.

"They said that Sam was going to die for your sins. But that you were going to be the one paying. That in the end, you could have prevented all this death and destruction, but that you had to know this was going to happen. That danger follows you around, or does it only follow you around while you are with your beloved. That you have walked away from love before and she still got hurt. They said something about weather, after that."

"No, that wasn't what you said earlier at Deception." he told the younger man. "It wasn't the informative, nor was it what you just said."

Spinelli thought about it then said. "Wait, why don't we just listen, I recorded it."

Jason grimaced, as Spinelli replayed his voice mail.

"_Give Morgan a message. Tell him that the woman he asked to marry him is going to pay for his sins. If he had wanted to prevent this, all he had to do is not take it back. _

_Marrying her the first time she said yes would have ended the danger. When you leave things you love vulnerable to danger, it comes. But wait it is only dangerous for certain people to be around you, isn't it Mr. Morgan? Have you seen the wind lately?"_

Jason turned white, then rushed out of the penthouse, horrified to realize that Spinelli had used his own perception and that lack of perception had endangered Elizabeth. Arriving at the cottage, he saw Sam and Spinelli following in her car as he got past the police barrier terrified by what he was about to find.

Rushing in, he saw Audrey Hardy crying as Mac Scorpio held her. "Mac, how did this happen?"

Jason felt his knees give way as he looked at Spinelli who came over and asked why are we at Fair Elizabeth's house? And why is the medical examiner here?

Looking at the geek, Jason realized that he had no idea what he had done wrong. "They are here because I believed you were telling me the whole story, not your version of the truth. Elizabeth is gone, because of your stupidity. Audrey Hardy is inside crying because you didn't give me the correct information. You did this, just as assuredly as if you committed the murder yourself."

Sam tried to stop Jason as he seemed to spew invective at the younger man. "Jason, stop it. there is no reason..."

"Get out of here, now. Both of you. Spinelli, the woman I asked to marry me, the woman I lost that mattered so much, was Elizabeth. The people vulnerable were Elizabeth and our sons."

Sam was grinding her teeth as she listened while Jason went on about the great and good Elizabeth Webber. As she heard him saying how he had loved her all those years ago and lost her. How he had finally gotten a chance with her again, only to lose her to the danger of his world and how all he wanted was to be left alone, she was glad that the woman was dead.

There was a sudden silence as Mac Scorpio had come out on the porch shocked as several of his detectives and officers listened as Jason outed himself as Jake's father and admitted to wanting to be with Elizabeth. Admitting to feeling not worthy of her.

The woman who came up behind Mac turned white and almost fainted as she listened in. There was a sudden commotion as someone came onto the porch from next door and the frozen tableau seemed to shatter like a window that had been hit by a baseball. "Jason, what are you doing?"

Looking up, Jason saw her standing there with Patrick and felt light headed, then saw black spots in front of his eyes as he passed out with her name on his lips.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jason woke up to Patrick Drake taking his pulse while he was lying on Elizabeth's sofa. As he opened his eyes he saw Elizabeth standing off in the corner talking to Mac and Audrey Hardy. "Drake, I'm fine."

"Really you idiot, I seriously doubt it. What were you thinking, telling everyone about Jake? Have you finally had that lobotomy that Robin thinks you need?" he asked as he put away his medical equipment than looked at the mobster with scorn.

Hearing a commotion outside, Jason saw that Spinelli and Sam were being kept away by the police who did not look happy. "Why are the police here?"

"Better question, Morgan would be why would you think Elizabeth was dead?" asked Mac as he walked over to the man trying to stand while Elizabeth just shot him a look of disgust before walking up the stairs with her grams who was crying.

Jason explained about the message from the killer and Mac who was pissed about the way that Morgan had just endangered Elizabeth and knowing he couldn't arrest him without making it worse, turned to an officer nearby and said "Confiscate Mr. Spinelli's phone and arrest him for obstructing justice. Morgan, if you so much as lift a hand to help him, I will arrest Elizabeth for perjury, so think hard before even thinking about calling Diane Miller."

Mac was certain this would put Jason was between a rock and a hard place, but that was what Mac wanted. He wanted to make sure that this moron realized what he was doing by helping the users of Port Charles. However he was unaware that Jason was just as pissed at the geek right this moment for once again not telling him everything.

They could all here the sound of Spinelli and Sam protesting his arrest and then the sound of Sam coming onto the porch. Elizabeth who had just heard about Lucky and Mac's version of their supposed reunion, stopped her at the door and turned to the officer there. "Miss McCall is not welcome at my home, and has been told this repeatedly, please make sure that she stays away."

"Certainly Miss Webber. Miss McCall you need to leave this property. By law I can only ask you to go to the sidewalk, but if you refuse I can arrest you." He was not fond of the woman and her little tantrum at not being allowed inside while Patrick had treated Jason had pissed him off. She had thrown a fit about Elizabeth being there until the younger woman had pointed out with disdain that she didn't want Jason in her home anymore than Sam did.

Sam hissed at Elizabeth that this wasn't over and that she would pay for what just happened. "Miss McCall you are under arrest for threatening Elizabeth Webber." said the policeman as he handcuffed the woman.

"Great job, Sam. Mac I need to apply for a restraining order against her." Said Elizabeth before turning to Jason. "May I have a minute with Jason?"

"I will be outside talking to Patrick. Elizabeth how is your grandmother doing?"

"As well as can be expected, why would someone dig up Grandpa Steve's grave though?"

"I don't know. I do know that it is connected to Lucky and Coleman's death though." he said. "Agent Raynor is going to want to talk to her. I will also deal with that other item. It won't come back against you, I promise you that."

Smiling softly, Elizabeth said Thanks.

Mac was on the porch as Sam was taken away, then called Harper down at the station. "Get a hold of Spinelli's cell phone when it arrives. I think that for some reason, Morgan thought that they had to protect Sam McCall. I am sure you heard about what happened at Elizabeth Webber's."

"That Morgan is that kids father. Worst kept secret in this town." said the detective. His boss and he had discussed the possibility of that being Spencer's secret before they saw the tape of him talking to Helena Cassidine. Spencer had been lovers with the woman while still under her control.

Mac could not help wondering if that was why he had become such a screw up when he returned, his mind might not have truly ever been able to accept what had happened while he had been brainwashed.

Sighing he hung up when he heard the raised voices inside as Robin walked up after talking to Patrick who went over to stay with the kids.

Elizabeth was standing at her mantle, trying to control her temper. "What were you thinking?"

"I thought you were dead. I thought you had been killed like Lucky was." he said softly hurt at how distant she was. Looks like Sam had heard correctly, she had gotten back together with Lucky. "I know you two had gotten back together. I was happy for you." he lied.

"Of course you were, that way you could pretend that Jake never existed, wait." she said derisively "You were already doing that, weren't you. Let me guess though, you heard about it from one of those incredibly brave and strong sidekicks, Sam or Spinelli?"

"Sam, she said you two were together." he admitted.

"Sam." she said laughing. "What a joke, you didn't stop to think she might have her own agenda for telling you that. You know... you know what..." with that Elizabeth just looked at him, and finished "Why don't you get out of my house. For your information, I had no intention of getting back together with Lucky. I would never do that to my sons. Never go back to someone who would recklessly chose to be involved with someone who endangered my boys. But you wouldn't get that would you. After all you constantly around with woman who hired to two men to hold us up in the park, aren't you?"

"I though..." he stopped and realized that she thought he was involved with Sam again.

"I have to ask, did I miss the day you were this generous and forgave AJ? No, I don't think so, in fact I seem to recall you sleeping with his wife, not feeling an ounce of guilt over it. Have you forgiven Ric? No, but I am certain the day Sonny tells you to, you will refuse saying he hurt Carly and Morgan. But you forgave the woman who endangered your own son, I guess since Carly isn't his mother it doesn't matter. You are nothing but a hypocrite Jason. So why don't you go rescue Sam and Spinelli. Do what you do best, leave me and my sons exposed. Wait, was that your phone, does Carly need you to hold her hand while she takes a pregnancy test again?" she snarked at him.

Jason stood there, helpless as she walked to her stairs. "Go away, Jason. I don't need your brand of love, all it does is break peoples hearts, but think of this while you are saving everyone else but your own blood... you consider the Quartermaine's users, but how about the people you use yourself?"

Jason saw his hands were shaking when she turned to look at him. Swallowing the pain, he said "WE have to talk, the danger."

"Amazing isn't it, how there is only danger to the boys and me?" she said before continuing up the stairs. "Get out before I have you arrested."

Robin had heard from Patrick that the paternity secret was out and had gone over to comfort Elizabeth, but had been stopped on the front porch by her uncle. As the two of them listened, they were both astonished as Elizabeth walked away from Jason and ordered him to leave.

"Jase, I will talk to her." said Robin entering. She saw the look on Jason's face and realized that he was still in love with the petite brunette who had walked up the stairs without looking at him. "She is hurting right now. Just give it some time."

"There is no time. Even now the truth is spreading. I swore I would never endanger Jake or her again." he said while going over to the mantle and picking up the original of the picture he had tried to clean while at his penthouse earlier. Replacing it, he said "I love her, I will die loving her."

Robin felt the lump in her throat at the emotions she could feel emanating off Jason. "Jason, then why are you back with Sam?"

"I'm not. Spinelli and she have been working together on something. I have just been using her as a sounding board."

"Why?" she asked blankly. "There are tons of people who would be better suited, so truthfully Jason why is Sam McCall suddenly your best friend?"

Jason thought about the truth, the fact that as long as she was in his life he would stay away from his family, he would never bring Jake and Elizabeth into his world as long as he had Sam around. He had been determined to stay away and having Sam around assured that. But instead he told her "She helps me think clearly."

Elizabeth heard his remark as she walked down the stairs, scoffing she said "Jason, why are you still here?"

"I have to talk to you about guards." he said.

"Not necessary, tomorrow Grams and I are leaving town. I wouldn't trust your guards anyhow, like their boss they never seem to be there when you need them. Jason, I want nothing more from you. I will take that payoff to disappear just like you wanted. You can go back to your Corinthos family with a clear conscious, but someday when Jake comes to see you and that day will happen, know one thing. My son will be told the truth, both the good and the bad, something to think about while your trying to think clearly. I hope that you will be able to live with yourself."

"Elizabeth it's not like that." he said walking over to her, but backing up when he saw the hard look on her face.

"No only in your mind is it not like that. In your mind a promise made to Michael is more important than one to Jake. So fine. I finally get it, Jason. I do. It was a one night stand that we tried to make into more because I had Jake. Well you are free, go back to your barren ex-fiance and stay away from my son, because no matter what, Sam McCall will not be in Jake's life. Do you understand what I am saying. That bitch who has been the cause of more pain for my children and will never be around my son. Nor anyone else she is connected to. If you or Carly make the mistake of taking this to court or even considering trying for visitation, think of two things."

"What I know about Sam and then what I know about you. After the incident at the hospital I made a will and most importantly a file that is several places to keep you and your friends from EVER getting to see my son." she said before walking to her door. "Now once again, get out."

Mac knew that Elizabeth was going to be in danger and that she would need some security. Calling Anna he explained the situation. "I will take care of it. What was she talking about in regard to Sam McCall?"

"I don't know, and I won't ask. I won't remove the leverage or Morgan might be able to use it to get custody." said Mac well aware how the mob in Port Charles worked.

Anna made a couple of calls, then returned Mac's call. "I have my nephew coming into town. Aidan will have some of his people there to protect her along with himself."

Going over the writing on the wall, Raynor was confused. "Cruz, you were partners for a couple years with Spencer, how can you not know what this means.

"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing."

"Lucky was never particularly religious that I saw." he said puzzled.

"What about the sins part?" he asked as he heard a disturbance. Walking to the doorway, Raynor saw Luke Spencer trying to get past the barrier. "Let him in."

The gray haired man entered and saw that Spinelli had been telling the truth. There was writing in blood all over the walls. Seeing the mark of Helena, he turned to the FBI agent and said sneeringly "I see like most of the men in blue, you are incompetent. this was Helena Cassadine. That is her mark."

"Mr. Spencer, Helena Cassadine doesn't have the skill to do what was done to your son. Don't jump to conclusions and go looking for trouble." he said then realized he was speaking to air. Turning to one of his agents he said "Call this number and tell the person who answers to meet me at that old run down studio building."

"Cruz, what were the responding sins." he said as Mac Scorpio entered. He had recorded the call from Spinelli, called in favor to protect Elizabeth legally from the lie she told in court and had already arranged for supplies to be brought to his old club before coming here.

"Lust, Spencer cheated on his wife repeatedly. Greed, he is a Spencer, enough said. Sloth, trust me he needed a maid, he never took care of things himself. Envy, I could give you a list of people he envied from his own brother to Jason Morgan. As for Pride, he seemed to take pride in being a Spencer like it actually meant something." said Mac as he walked over.

Turning to Cruz he said "I know about how you covered for him, but we can't afford that any longer. This is bigger than you know. Someone dug up Steve Hardy's grave. At first glance it had nothing to do with this, but it now looks like your killer accessed Spencer, Coleman and Hardy's medical records. Also was Spencer an organ donor?"

"No, he said it bothered him, the idea of it."

"His viable organs were transplanted this afternoon. I had Patrick check into it along with Monica."

Raynor felt someone walk on his grave as he took Scorpio outside to ask about this Helena Cassadine.

"Typical Spencer, he will rush off to chase after Helena instead of doing the hard part and burying his son."

"Who will end up with the responsibility?"

"His brother more than likely along with his ex-wife."

"Can you explain that one to me, how can her kid be fathered by Morgan?"

Raynor had been aware of the relationship but what he really wanted was to see why Mac helped the Webber woman instead of using her against Morgan like he would have.

Mac explained about the past, then gave Raynor a brief history of Elizabeth Webber. "So she is connected to two of these incidents, any connection to Coleman, or even this strip club? As beautiful as she is, maybe she stripped there or something?"

"Elizabeth?" asked Mac then he laughed. "She went to Jake's with her friends a few times, along with my niece, that was her only connection to Coleman. As for the strip club, not a chance. She is too classy for that, I can only think of one connection to that place. Morgan. His ex-wife stripped there while married to his brother. Long story, but Courtney and Elizabeth hated each other. Understandably, Morgan got with her on the rebound and she hated Elizabeth for it."

"That is a stretch then. Why kill Spencer at his mother's old company though?"

Mac had a thought but kept it to himself, Elizabeth didn't need this grief, not with all the rest that she was dealing with. "Spencer worked here as a photographer. Elizabeth was originally one of the models, but she quit."

When Mac arrived at the station he saw that Alexis was paying Sam's bail. Then he saw the process server walk up and hand her paperwork. "Sam McCall this is a restraining order. You are to stay at least fifty feet from Elizabeth Webber and her immediate family. You may not enter her workplace at any time. You are also to stay away from anyplace that she habitually goes. Here is a list from the judge."

Alexis took the paper and saw that it was the hard nosed Judge Fleck who signed the order. "Sam, that includes Kelly's, the park if you see her car in the vicinity." Reading the last bit, she felt her eyes widen, then turning to look at Mac said "Isn't that going a little too far?"

"No, Sam you are forbidden to step foot in General Hospital. If Elizabeth should be fired from there for any reason, you will be automatically placed under arrest for using undue influence. Alexis, don't event think of approaching the board. I will personally make sure that your daughter is in a jail cell before I go to the bar about you."

Alexis' jaw locked, how dare he threaten her. "Alexis, you daughter no longer gets a free pass. As for Mr. Spinelli, the FBI has him now under a material witness order."

Sam went to find Jason, not having any luck she went to Diane Miller's office. "Spinelli was arrested by the FBI, you need to do something."

"I can't. He has never been my client, Jason always paid his fees. On the other hand, Elizabeth Webber is still my client, and I am required to consider her before taking any actions. Ask your mother to help."

"Jason paid for Elizabeth..." she started to say when Diane smirked and said

"No, Elizabeth insisted on paying her own bills no matter how many times Jason tried to fight her on it. Unlike some people, Elizabeth likes to stand on her own two feet instead of relying on whatever man she is involved with to take care of her."

Sam got the distinct feeling that Diane didn't like her. Walking away, she saw Sonny entering the building to talk to the woman. When he walked out a half hour later, steaming she approached him. "Spinelli was arrested."

"I know, why do you think I am here." he said annoyed. "Diane won't budge, I am hoping to talk to Elizabeth about the situation. You need to stay out of it."

"No! I won't allow her to dictate to me." she said snarling.

"Sam, back off. You don't know her that well, if you push her back will be up and Spinelli won't stand a chance. Let me deal with this. Why don't you find Jason, he went to look at something."

"What?"

"I don't know. But something about the way Spencer died rang a bell with him." Sonny wanted this dealt with, and Sam would not help. He was worried about her getting her hands on the tapes, almost as much as he was about his wife.

When she was gone, Sonny called back the no name phone and said "I have the money, what proof do I have that you will give me the originals?"

"Just meet me on the docks at midnight. With the hundred grand, Mr. Corinthos. Otherwise the tapes will go public. That is the only guarantee you have. By the way, I made sure that if I don't access them every eight hours, they go public anyhow. so don't even think of double crossing me."

Jason left Pentonville and saw Mac Scorpio standing there waiting for him. "We need to talk."

"Where?" asked Jason.

"Do you recall the Outback?" he asked.

"I will meet you there." he said leaving to meet Carly. When he arrived at the Metrocourt, he told her what had happened.

"Now you can see your son." she said thrilled for him.

"CARLY, do you get the danger in that? Do you even stop to think why I walked away from Elizabeth and the boys."

"Jason, the danger was still there, Elizabeth just buried her head and refused to see it. She is like Alexis in..."

"No, she isn't. Carly, I came to tell you so that you didn't do anything rash, stay out of this." he told his friend. "Elizabeth and I need to talk. There are things you don't know and I need you to as my friend let me handle this, please."

Seeing Jax entering, she said "Jason, don't walk away from him, if you do you will regret it."

"Carly, don't you get it. I want the best for him, for Elizabeth. That isn't me. No matter how many times Elizabeth tried to convince me I was wrong, I won't allow the darkness of my life to touch them." he said bleakly as he walked away.

Seeing Sam entering the lobby, he sighed but knew he had to take care of this so she wouldn't follow him. Listening to her talk, he said "Sam, Diane is correct. She can't represent Spinelli."

"He has been arrested by the FBI." she pointed out. "What are you doing about it."

"Nothing, he is at a safe house. That is all. As for the restraining order, I will talk to Elizabeth she is just a little angry right now." he said sighing. Then he asked "When did Spencer tell you that they were back together? Mac was asking about it for the case."

"He didn't. I saw them together. I stopped over to talk to him, and she was coming downstairs in his shirt." said Sam grateful for what Carly had once told her about betraying Jason while she had been trying to get him back after sleeping with Ric.

Jason knew she was lying, but said "I will let Mac know. Finding this killer is the only way to get Spinelli home. So go to Jake's and find out what happened there." He wanted her out of the way and this was the best idea he had.

"Jason, I am sorry about Elizabeth and Lucky, but you have to realize that it was inevitable. Elizabeth just wasn't meant to live like we do. At least now you will be able to see Jake."

Sam went to see what she could find at Jake's. Seeing the trashed bar, she went up the stairs and found a note. Reading it, she saw it was addressed to Lucky unaware of the shadow who was standing in the hallway, saying all good things come to those who wait.

"_Spencer, why don't you think about this while you are waiting for your turn. This is only one of the places that Jason and Elizabeth fell in love all those years ago. The studio, here, even Kelly's. Why do you think Jason moved into the penthouse, it was where he was planning on living his life with the love of yours. Too bad you will be dying soon."_

Sam grimaced as she tried to figure out what this note had been about. Also had Lucky read it. She had no intention of telling Jason what it said. He would be guarding Elizabeth himself. As she entered the bar area again, she saw that the only thing not trashed in the room was a pool table but there was a piece of paper on it.

Going over she saw a sketch of Jason smiling at someone while leaning on a pool cue with an unfinished game in the background. Seeing it signed in the corner, she crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash before realizing that something was written on the pool table and was still wet.

Stepping onto a chair she saw it said, "Be patient, your turn will come."

Rushing from the room, she pulled out her cell phone and left a message on Jason's voice mail before fleeing towards the towers wanting to be someplace safe.

Sonny walked into his old penthouse, looking for a place to get rid of the weapon. If Max did his job while planting the bomb, then his blackmailer would still die tonight. Hearing the sound of footsteps, he turned and asked "What are you doing here?"

Raynor meet with his inside man, then asked "How much longer?"

"It is tricky. I don't want to press to quickly. How are things on your end?"

"I am running out of reasons to be here. Thank god for this serial killer. Get the evidence so that we can wrap this up."

Ethan turned and made sure that no one saw him as he left to return to the Haunted Star never seeing his tail. Harper made a note of what he had heard then went to check on his other possible suspect.

As Sam arrived at the Towers, she stopped to talk to the entrance guard, not wanting to be alone right then. Fifteen minutes later, she went over to hit the button to go upstairs. When it didn't come down she turned and asked what was going on.

"I don't know. It was working earlier. Take the service elevator while I look into it." he said calling someone to take care of things. Sam walked around to the less plush elevator and hit the call button. When it arrived, the guard heard her screams as she kept yelling for help.

Arriving he saw the blood red words and called the police.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"We have a body at Harborview Towers.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The guard watched as Sam McCall was hauled off to Mercy hospital. Then reaching out for the desk phone he called over to locate Alexis Davis.

"Alexis Davis."

"Miss Davis, this is Teddy over at the Towers, your daughter is on her way to Mercy hospital. She had to be sedated."

"What did Morgan do now?" she asked. Then seeing Harper in her doorway, she motioned him in and hung up on the man protesting that Mr., Morgan didn't do anything.

"Miss Davis. Is there someone I can call for you?"

"Just tell me what happened." she said sure that she was going to hear about death and mayhem.

"Ma'am, Sonny Corinthos was killed by this serial killer. They found him at the Harborview Towers in the delivery elevator."

Alexis sat down, shocked. She had always knew that Sonny would die a miserable death, but had expected gunfire to be the cause of death. "Was it like the others?"

"Yes, kept alive while body parts were harvested for transplant. We notified the transplant people, they are going to put a warning out, but the thing is there are some unscrupulous doctors who won't care and family members whose only interest is going to be in saving their loved ones."

"Do we have any lead yet?" she asked. "I have to get to GH, wait, Mercy to check on Sam, why was she there?"

"I don't know Morgan was answering questions elsewhere with Mac, so I have no idea what your daughter was up to." and he truly didn't care.

Alexis entered Mercy after calling Nik to see what he could do to get his cousin into a better facility. Seeing Mac Scorpio coming towards her, she said "My daughter needs to be at General Hospital."

"Alexis, I don't have time for this. I have a serial killer who in the last three days has killed three people. We have no leads and so far no idea why these particular people were chosen. Our only theory went up in smoke with Corinthos' death."

"I thought the FBI was handling the case?" she asked.

"They are, but I am looking into it as well. We are sharing information. Now according to the guard, Sam couldn't get up the express elevator and went to take the delivery elevator off to the side. She saw Sonny's body and screamed."

"If you know that why are you here?"

"Your daughter violated a crime scene tonight and the killer left a tape of that at the murder. She lied to the officers on the scene and I want to know why."

"I won't let you talk to my daughter." she insisted fiercely.

"Alexis, when Coleman died, there was a message left for Lucky Spencer. This time there was a message left for Sam. Spencer is dead, I am trying to prevent Sam from being found like Sonny was. So stay out of my way."

Storming down the hall, Alexis snarled as she went looking for Jason Morgan. He had to know something, why if he did wasn't he here protecting Sam. She knew exactly where to go to get answers.

Knocking on Carly's door, she waited until the woman opened it and said "Where is Jason?"

"Alexis, I don't know. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Sonny was killed tonight." she said bluntly.

"I know, why do you think we are still up. I just told Morgan after Agent Raynor told us. Jax took him up to bed just minutes ago. Have you told Kristina yet?" she asked trying to be nice for Jax' sake.

"No, did you hear who found him?"

"No, all they told me was that Sonny was found dead the same way that Lucky and Coleman were." she admitted.

"Sam did, she was on her way to Jason's. He should be protecting her but he is nowhere to be found. Where is he Carly, I won't lose my daughter because Jason isn't there to protect her."

Carly could not deal with Alexis, she had tried to be nice, but no more, not tonight. "Why don't you go home and worry about your other daughters, not the adrenaline junkie. She is in good hands at GH, just deal with Kristina."

"That's just it, she isn't at GH. Elizabeth Webber has a restraining order out on her and she had to go to Mercy. Nik is refusing to do anything more than arrange for better care at Mercy." she said about to cry.

Alexis saw the half smile in Carly's face and asked what was so funny.

"That for such a mouse, when she roars, Elizabeth can get things done. Sam is going to be fine. She always is." she said trying not to laugh in Alexis' face. She loathed Elizabeth more than Sam, but she had to admire the moves that the young mother had taken against Alexis' daughter.

Alexis stormed out, wanting to find help for her daughter. Arriving at the station, she saw Ric Lansing talking to Agent Raynor. When he turned and approached her, she said "Not now, Sam needs my help."

"NO, your other daughters need you. I have been looking for you, the press has this. How long do you think it will take them to show up at your place? Do you really think Viola is capable of dealing with that? Go home and deal with the girls."

"Sam nee..."

"So, she needs you more than Kristina, is that what you are saying, You are putting Sam's welfare over your two younger daughters. The same Sam who slept with your husband. She had sex with me to hurt you, but you are worried about her instead of the girls. Is that what you are saying?"

Alexis wanted to press on, but what Ric of all people was saying got to her. Sitting down in Lucky Spencer's chair, she sighed. "You are right. Thank you Ric."

"Go home." he said softly. "Stop avoiding Kristina. We both know that this is what your are doing."

Alexis hung her head, then went out the door and drove herself home. Arriving she saw that Milo was there clearing out her front lawn of reporters. entering quickly, Alexis gathered the girl and Viola. "We are going to stay with Nik, would you like that girls?"

Milo got them into the SUV and drove them to the docks where they took the shuttle craft out to Spoon Island. Arriving Alexis went looking for Nik who told her that he arranged for Sam to be transferred to Shadybrook.

"Why Shadybrook?" she asked.

"Alexis, she is catatonic according to Lainey. Plus it protects her from Mac. They found evidence from the Coleman murder on her when she arrived in the Emergency room. They want to know what she was doing with it. The killer went back to Jake's and left a message. They found a drawing in the trash and fresh blood on the pool table."

Jason thought about what Mac had told him. While Mac believed that it wasn't connected to Elizabeth anymore, Jason wasn't so sure. Calling Kurt he asked how things were going?

"Nothing much. They ordered takeout, but Mr. C's murder drew the reporters away. Mrs. Hardy seems to be a wreck while Miss Webber seems to be spending her time between her grandmother and the boys."

"How are they doing?"

"Playing in the backyard right now, but earlier Cameron went for a ride on his bike with the help of Dr. Drake's younger brother who showed up."

"Did you send them?" As Jason asked about the photos that he saw daily, not even Spinelli was aware of the site that Kurt's brother had set up.

"Yes. We saw some men arriving to visit the Drakes. I ran them, one of them is Mrs. Dr. Drake's cousin from Pine Valley, he was wearing a gun."

"Find out what you can, but remember..."

"Be discreet, Jason I have been here since last summer. Miss Webber has no idea who I am or that I work for you."

"She is a little upset with me right now, so if it looks like she is packing suitcases or heads to leave, let me know."

"I will, I promise Jason, I will take care of your family." said the guard before hanging up. Turning to his 'roommate' he said "Morgan is a little antsy."

"Well he publicly outed the secret he has spent the last eight months trying to erase from existence, what do you expect?" said the second guard. "I just don't understand, if he loves her this much, why not just get married? Wouldn't it be easier."

"Who knows what he is thinking." said the man. "For now, we just do our jobs and protect his family."

Arriving at the Corinthos estate, Jason walked in and saw Claudia talking on the phone. "You have two hours to pack up your things and leave."

"I am going nowhere's." she said sitting down and rubbing her stomach.

"Claudia, the only thing keeping me from killing you was Sonny. So I would get on a plane to Milan and I would do so now."

"I wouldn't threaten me, who knows what might happen to that little woman you have on the side." she said.

Jason looked at her and said "I know you were behind what happened to Michael, you should know that Ric isn't going to help you. He is out for himself, just like his father was. So, trust me when I say I will not hesitate to pull the trigger. One less child with Zachara DNA running around is perfectly fine with me."

"Even when its Sonny's? Somehow I doubt that." she said then hearing footsteps saw Johnny entering the room looking worried.

"Claudia are you okay?"

"No, she isn't. I have given you all the chances I am going to. Get her out of here and out of the country before I take her out. She just made one of the biggest mistakes of her life."

Johnny moved in front of his sister, holding a gun on Jason. "Don't event think of it."

"Your sister threatened my family, after Michael do you really think I wouldn't take measures to prevent that."

"She won't do anything, I promise." he said sweating as he saw Morgan looking at Claudia. The ice blue of his eyes seemed to cloud for a minute, then Jason reached down for the glass in front of him without ever removing the gun from it's target.

Picking it, he took a sip and gave Claudia a slow smile. "You had better hope that your brother is more forgiving than I am. Zachara, try this."

Wondering why Jason was making such a big deal about a glass of water, he took a sip and froze at the taste of vodka. Seeing the look in Claudia's eyes, he knew that Morgan saw it as well. "Vodka, strange drink for someone who is pregnant, wouldn't you say?"

Johnny recalled seeing his sister pouring the glass and remarking on how she loathed water. He felt his heart break as he realized his sister had used him to protect her lie. "Why?"

"Not another word." she hissed at her brother.

"Claudia, that offer. Take it now. Don't even dream of harming my family, you won't like my response. Zachara get her out of town before I take her out." with that Jason walked out the door.

"Why?"

Shrugging she said "I didn't want to ruin my figure. It was easy enough to do, I just faked the results and threatened the doctor. I was going to grab a dark haired and skinned kid and pass it off as his. Sonny's ego wouldn't let him believe anything other than it was his."

"We have to go." he said.

Claudia walked to the hallway still sulking and said "I can replace anything I have here. Too bad, I was starting to like this place."

At the airport, Johnny waited until she had gone to get another drink and sent the text. When his sister returned, he looked at her and wondered what happened to the woman who had saved his life so many times. "Claudia, why did you not just leave."

Chuckling derisively, she said "I fell for him the first time I saw him. Strange, he hated my guts, but I wanted to be part of his life. Then the paper doll took him back, what is wrong with me Johnny. Why do I always love men like our father. Men who will never love me back?"

Hugging her, Johnny said softly, "I don't know, but remember one things. I will always love you."

"You shouldn't. There are things I have to tell you, things that are going to make you hate me. It wouldn't have lasted with Lulu or even Maxie. There were deals I made while still in Italy, things that happened long before I came here."

"Claudia, what are you talking about?"

"I made a deal with Lorenzo Alcazar to help his son. The boy who killed those woman, Lulu and Maxie's friend and sister. I also helped get some drugs here that killed Lulu's nephews mother. Some blond, I never saw her photo at Nik's, but once over heard Lulu and some brunette talking about her."

Johnny asked why.

"The drugs were to create an epidemic, then to cure it. But they found a way around it. As for Lorenzo, we dated a long time ago. Honestly, he was good in bed and charming out of it." she said with a sad smile. "But I always knew that he loved another."

"What did you do for this Diego?"

"Lorenzo wanted his son taken care of, he had a doctor to do so, but wanted someone to insure that the doctor didn't abandon him, he wanted a nurse there as well."

Johnny watched as his sister seemed to grow sadder and sadder. Worried he almost suggested she stay, when her lips turned blue and she couldn't breathe. "CLAUDIA?" he reached over and tried to help her.

"Sir, let us in." said the medics. They checked on the woman and pronounced her dead at the scene. Destroyed, Johnny vowed that if Jason Morgan was behind this, he would kill the man. When he saw them taking the body away, the airport security gave him his sister's things.

Placing them in the back of his vehicle, he heard a phone ringing. Checking his, he saw that it wasn't the one. Grimacing and grabbing back he pulled the cheap phone out of Claudia's purse. He looked at wondering what his sister had been up to at the time of her death.

Hearing a chirp to indicate a text message, he pulled over and looked at the phone. Reading the message, he hit the code, glad that it was still set at the factory code.

"Did you like my artistry? Poison for the wicked witch. I can't remember did little Dorothy kill the witch with cold water or hot. Too bad by the time you arrive at the morgue it will be all over."

Johnny gunned the engine and dialed 911 at the same time. Reaching an operator, he asked to speak to Mac Scorpio, explaining that the serial killer had just called him.

Less than a minute later, he was telling the police commissioner what had been said. Mac assured him that he was on his way down to the morgue even as he was talking to the mobster. Arriving Mac asked where the body from the airport was.

"I don't have any bodies from the airport. No calls came in today." said the doctor. Mac called the FAA office only to be told they had been trying to reach him. "Two of our men were transporting a body, but when they went to load it into the vehicle, it was gone. The bag had a CPR dummy in it."

Johnny arrived at the station, followed by the officer who had gotten the message from Mac and led him there. "Sir, where is my sister?"

Telling him what they knew, Mac said "Give me that phone, it might be our only lead."

Listening to the message, Mac sent it to his own phone then called up to Raynor who was on the phone with Washington. They wanted to know who was killing random people, but now it was starting to look not so random.

Mac called Alexis, his men having tracked her down to Spoon Island. "You can relax about your daughter, the killer took out Claudia Zachara. I still want to know why she was at the Coleman crime scene and why she didn't notify us what she found there."

Alexis said "She was planning on getting her PI"s license maybe she thought solving this would give Spinelli and her a jump start."

"Alexis, I don't know why she would bother. Sam has a criminal record. New York State would never give her a license." then he hung up well aware that his little dig was inappropriate, but more than a little fed up with Alexis' blind spot for her daughter.

Jason got the message from his snitch at the police department and wondered why the change in methods. He was starting to realize how lazy he had gotten when it came to things. Doing his own leg work was showing how much he had been depending on others.

Elizabeth was sitting on her porch watching her two male neighbors planting flowers. Seeing Robin coming over, she scooted down so that she could join her. "So do you think they are gay?"

"I don 't know. I mean two healthy males, we have never seem either of them with a woman, but the guy the size of my garage has been checking you before." said Robin. "How are you doing, Elizabeth Truly?"

Resting her head on the back of the porch swing, Elizabeth said "Truly, I don't know."

"Talk to me, I know that I'm not Emily but how about we try." she said. "You have been there repeatedly for me, but never want to rely on any one else. Trust me I do understand. It took forever for me to admit that I needed to talk to someone."

"Fine, but right now my mind is on my grandfather and why anyone would dig up his body. Grams is a wreck, I am taking her to Gail Baldwin in Arizona."

"Are you coming back?" asked Robin well aware of what she had told Jason.

"I don't want to, but yes. I have friends here, a support system. I have had my heart broken before and survived, the difference is that this time I know better than to trust people."

"People or Jason?" she asked.

"People. Last time things went south for Jason and me, I trusted people, I was naive. Apparently I still am. Lucky has been telling people we were together again. I would never put my kids back in that situation. I let him stay in their lives but only in mine as a friend. At least that was what I thought."

"He has been over here a lot." said Robin gently. "Are you really surprised people believed you two had gotten back together."

"I shouldn't be. Grams told me that she had expected us to get back together as well. I finally sat down and told her the truth, about the drugs and how bad it was. About the verbal abuse." Seeing the shadow crossing her face, Robin asked what is it?

"Grams asked me if it was that bad why was I letting him in the boys life. Then when I told her that I wanted them to have a father figure. She said that no father figure is better than one that sees their mother putting up with someone like that. And then she asked if I wanted my boys to grow up like Lucky.

""Good question, did you?" asked Robin. She turned when she saw Aidan returning from his jog.

Elizabeth's eyes widened at the man running with only a muscle shirt on. "Who is that?"

"I know, it's hard to deal with. That is my cousin Aidan. The first time I met him, I was hoping he was adopted." the two women laughed, grateful for the lift from the gloom.

Elizabeth sighed then said "I screwed things up so badly. Grams is right, I do have trust issues."

"Try having your parents fake their deaths, then when you find your mother again, she is remarried to a man not much older than you with a new baby on the way." said Robin.

"True, that beats dealing with my parents. Robin, I don't know what I am going to do. I mean if Lucky was lying, maybe Maxie was too."

"Maxie?" asked Robin not liking the sounds of this. She loved her cousin but was well aware of her loathing for Elizabeth because Lucky had loved her.

"She came to me while I was still in the hospital a couple of months ago, told me that Sam and Jason went to Florida together. That she had seen them together, that they were sleeping together. Then something about a party that the four of them had at the penthouse for Spinelli."

"Elizabeth, why would you believe her, you know she wants to hurt you."

"Because I have no hold on Jason, he made that clear when he decided it was easier to walk away than to become a family with the boys and I."

"You know, I have seen Jason several times over the last few months. He seems like he is moving through life, not living it. Just like you are, Elizabeth. Have you tried to talk to him?"

"That's just it, Robin. I am always the one who makes the overtures, never Jason. I am the one always making compromises. Why can't he just do that for once."

"I don't know. But I know two things. First you have to calm down and find away to talk rationally to him when you see him next. Second you need to stand up for yourself with his friends. Carly and Sam they walk all over you. Why were you letting her near your boys if you hated her?"

"For Lucky, stupid wasn't it. As for Carly, I am waiting for what I know is coming and I am going to deal with that one." she said. Robin saw the look in her face and asked what do you have?

"Lets just say, Carly seems to forget I have lived here as long as she has."

"Elizabeth, my dear, do you have a minute?" asked Audrey from the living room where she was holding onto her cell phone.

After talking to Epiphany, Elizabeth grimaced then asked her grams about whether she would be fine doing that.

"Of course, Serena will me more than enough help to get the boys on and off the plane. When you join us in a couple of days, just bring yourself. We can take your suitcase with us."

Carly hung up the phone and smiled. Elizabeth should be getting the paperwork tomorrow all she had to do is make sure that Jason wasn't around until the afternoon.

She hadn't gone to Diane well aware that she would have gone straight to Jason, so instead she had called Lorenzo's attorney.

"Carly what are you still doing up." asked Jax as he encircled her waist.

"Just arranging for a surprise for Jason. Now that the truth is out about Jake, there is no reason for him to stay away from his son."

Jax got a bad feeling about this. "Carly what have you done."

"Nothing too bad. I think for once you will be proud of me, well eventually." she said. At least for part of it, she thought worriedly. She had listened to Jason and knew that her friend for some reason wanted his son and the baggage that came with it. So she would ensure that Jason got what he wanted. He as well as Elizabeth were being stubborn, and she wasn't going to let him lost what he wanted, she was sure that he would now take out the garbage, all that was left was to fix it so he got his new life.

She shuddered at the idea of dealing with Elizabeth Webber the rest of her life, but if that was what it took, she would deal. She had to, maybe help toughen her up. Groaning at how much work it was going to take to turn that wimp into someone who could live in Jason's world, she curled up next to Jax and went to sleep.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The killer tosses the bloody gloves away then called his transplant contact. He was amused to realize it had taken the police/FBI one body more than he had expected to put a stop to his donations to the organ harvest center. But he had planned for that.

Arranging for one of the more unscrupulous doctors of his acquaintance to handle the transfer anonymously had worked. The doctor didn't care where the parts were from. He had kind of liked the irony of using a mob boss and molls body parts like they had come from an illegal chop shop.

Checking on the writing he saw that it was just about dry. Soon it would be daybreak and the police would get the call telling them about the gruesome discovery. Plotting his next victim, he wondered about how easy it had been to do this. When had he gone from future medical savior to using his skills to cause pain?

While he had come to Port Charles to meet his family, instead he had found no family truly left. His mother locked away in the looney bin, his father neglecting his family. He had been shocked to find that the little remnants left of what should have been his life were frayed under the pressure of living in this town.

The greatest shock had been when he discovered who his cousin was and what had happened to him. Removing those who had done the worst damage to those around them had seemed like a good idea, but the more he learned the more he realized that even the good had been turned by the seediness of this port town.

He did feel bad about Coleman, he had gone to the man looking for the proof the man had on Sonny Corinthos. He had been aware of the man's distasteful past and that he had been trying to clean up his act, but he had found the bar owners well hidden secrets and in a moment of anger had given him the needle meant for Corinthos. Rather than letting the man's organs go to waste, he had harvested them.

Walking away from the dark and dingy sanitarium, he made the call. "911 What is your emergency?"

"I was out walking my dog at the old sanitarium and he found a body inside. Yo-you might want to send someone out here. There is red paint all over the walls and someone was pulling away when I arrived. Am I in danger?"

Laughing after hanging up, the killer calmly waited for the cops to arrive. This was going to be fun.

Jason was woken up by the call from Kurt. "She is heading to the airport, but she is wearing scrubs."

Grabbing his gun and walking out the door, Jason stopped to call Diane. "Take care of what I asked you to do, please."

"Jason this is a bad idea." she warned.

"Just do it, that is what I pay you for." he said hoarsely as he got onto his bike and rushed to stop Elizabeth from leaving. When he arrived at the airport he was halfway to the door when he remembered his gun. Running back to his bike, he placed it in the seat well and ran inside.

Seeing Elizabeth hugging the boys and promising to see them soon, he stopped off to the side so that she wouldn't see him and waited. While he wasn't thrilled that the boys were leaving with only Audrey Hardy and some blond girl for help, he knew to keep his peace for now. Seeing two of his men boarding the plane, Jason was grateful that Bernie had arranged for tickets for every flight scheduled today.

When they had gone down the concourse after some more I love yous and promises to call right way, he walked over just as the process server arrived. "Elizabeth Webber."

"Yes." she said turning to the young woman.

"You have been served. Have a nice day."

Taking the papers with a shaking hand, Elizabeth read what they said and swore that someone was going to regret trying to pull this. What the heck could she have possibly been thinking?

Jason saw the anger and confusion on her face at receiving the paperwork from Diane. He had hoped she would be angry and come to see him, not stand in the middle of the airport looking befuddled. Seeing her take out her phone and making a call, he saw the moment something seemed to upset her, then her face clear then he saw her looking at something on the papers. Then she growled something. Thinking on it, Jason would have sworn she said Carly.

Freezing, Jason closed his eyes. Dammit what did Carly do now? She just couldn't stay out of his business no matter how many times he asked her to. Now she had done something that had blown his plan right out of the water. Hearing his phone ringing he was planning on ignoring it until he saw that it said Diane.

"What did Carly do?" he asked.

"You will not believe this one. She is filing a lawsuit against Elizabeth on your behalf for get this alienation of affection in regards to Jake."

"What is that?" he asked confused.

After explaining, Jason walked out to the parking lot and got on his bike to make sure that Carly knew the damage she had done. Stopping suddenly, he pulled out his phone swearing. "Diane, stop the papers."

"Its too late." she said. "I already tried to reach my server and she is looking for Elizabeth now. I have my assistant on it, but I am working on damage control in case it can't be stopped."

Jason sped away, hoping to make Carly take back whatever the heck she thought she was doing.

Mac looked at the man sitting on the fallen oak tree. He looked familiar but he didn't know from where. Walking inside he saw the number 4 painted on the wall along with now familiar list of sins. "Cruz, what is it?"

The man in question just went outside to toss his cookies. He would never be able to eat anything boiled again. Returning he took his boss to the room with Claudia's body and said "Organs were gone before this was done."

Mac barely kept down his breakfast when he saw the bloated and bright red body of Claudia Zachara.

"Mac more messages."

"What do these ones say?"

"Something about how keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. There was one strange thing, this place hasn't had electricity since they closed but the gas was still on. There are signs that someone was either held here or was living here."

Mac saw the music on the walls of the padded room and called Johnny Zachara. "Do you know where the old Roselawn Sanitarium is?"

"Yes, why?"

"We found your sister, but I get the feeling you have been here before. Who had you brought here."

"Corinthos." he said. "Morgan was the one who got me free. He believed I shot Kate and that my sister or I had something to do with kidnapping Michael when he ran away."

"Thanks." he said. "Your sister's body is being taken to the station. Zachara, it is going to have to be a closed casket."

Swallowing his pain, Johnny said "Thanks for looking for her."

Agent Raynor talked to the witness and put out a BOLO on the car he described. "We think you might be in some danger."

"I get that." he said trying to look worried. "You know my background, that I am in WitSec, what happens now? If I don't do my articles for that journal, someone is going to get suspicous."

Raynor thought about it, then recalled what the agents babysitting Spinelli had said. "Do you need to work on line or can it be done offline."

"Either way. But you know why I live where I do, what about my controller."

"I will let her know. We will make you disappear again after this."

Pretending to be annoyed, the killer said "Thanks, what about my dog?"

Looking at the Golden Retriever he said "Bring her along." He had to admit the dogs bouncing around reminded him of the kid he had locked up in a safe house.

Mac was back at the station, dealing with the press when Elizabeth Webber stormed in. "Mac, may I have a moment please?"

Walking into his office, he listened to her request, then thought about what Carly had done to Robin and ordered his men to give her anything she needed. "Thanks." said the petite brunette when she walked out.

Jason arrived at Carly's house and saw that she seemed to be home alone. Entering without knocking he asked "What did you do?"

"Jason, I am glad to see you." she said with a smile while inwardly wondered what happened to Max's delaying him. She had left a message for the Italian and he had never let her down before.

"Cut the crap, Carly. What did you do to Elizabeth, why are you suing her."

"I'm not suing her, you are." she said with a smile. "I have it all planned. Trust me."

"Carly, I have asked you repeatedly to stay out of this, but you just can't listen, you just can't leave things alone." Shaking his head in pain as he walked around the room, picking up the rubber ducky he was certain was for the baby she was carrying listened as she went on and on about how after her plan worked, Jason would be with his son and how it was a shame he hadn't been there all along.

Elizabeth was standing in the doorway, calming down when she realized that Jason hadn't had anything to do with what Carly had done. Walking in, she slammed the door to get their attention. "Carly, you really are obtuse aren't you. Don't you get that if you had kept your big nose out of Jason's and my business he would have been there all along. But no, you had to stick yourself into the middle of a situation that didn't concern you."

"Of course it con-"

"Carly, shut up and listen. Jason would have been told, I was on my way to tell him about Jake, but someone, interfered, before I could. Someone who was not involved. Carly, Jason isn't your husband, you had no business being involved. You have no concept of personal boundaries. Well you crossed them for the last time. I have HAD IT. HERE!" she said thrusting the blue backed paperwork into her hand. "I am counter suing you. You know, I wonder if Jax would like a business partner who is calm and rational, instead of one who is constantly causing a ruckus." with that she left.

"Carly?" asked Jason. The blond looked stunned as she read the paperwork. Furious at first, she soon started laughing as she read on. Then she started to worry. Whoever had drawn this up had been good. And it wasn't Diane she realized.

"Jason, I think I screwed up." she said sitting down.

"You think?" he said sarcastically. "Don't you get it, she was telling you the truth, if you hadn't interfered we would have been together years ago. Now you have ruined my plan, if you think she is going to win the case against you, wait to you see how your screw up is going to cost me."

"She won't sue you, Jason." she said looking up earnestly into his face.

Jason sat down, wondering how to straighten this one out. "You don't understand. I had a plan, I can up with it a few days ago, but now you have blown it." he said miserably.

"Jason?" she asked realizing that she had never seen him look this bad.

"I filed paperwork, it was supposed to make Elizabeth made and come to me to talk. Now she is never going to believe that I didn't intend to really do this."

"What did you do?" she asked unaware that Jax was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He had arrived in time to see Elizabeth coming onto the porch and had rushed around to the back so that he could listen in.

"I filed paperwork first changing Jake's birth certificate, then I filed a lawsuit against Tracy for stealing Jake's inheritance. Then I filed one against Elizabeth."

"For what?" she asked knowing it wasn't for custody, if she knew anything at all, it was that Jason would have never done that.

"To force her to marry me." he admitted.

Jax walked in shocked, "How did you intend to do that?"

Seeing the stunned expressions, he said "I got here at the same time Elizabeth did. Now answer the question."

Hearing Jason's answer, Carly made a joke about rubbing off on him. "Jason there is no way that your plan wouldn't backfire. What were you thinking?"

"That I couldn't lose Elizabeth. That I wouldn't let that happen again. When I heard that I had been lied to, that Elizabeth wasn't back with Lucky. I thought I had gotten my life back. But she hates me for not fighting for her and our family."

"Not like she did much fighting either, now or in the past."

"Carly, you don't get it do you?" said Jax. "When I asked Elizabeth to be a surrogate, I did some research into her background after the whole mess with Courtney. All she did was fight for so long, my guess is that she saw Jason's willingness to do anything she asked as his not caring, as his not wanting to be bothered. She probably thought she was offering him what she wanted."

"Please, anyone could see that if she asked, he would jump off the docks for her." she scoffed.

"Anyone but Elizabeth." said Jax. Jason got what the blond was saying. Elizabeth and his relationship had always been plagued by both of their insecurities. She never had seemed to get that he felt like he was never good enough, and he was starting to get that she had spent too long fighting for too many things. They had been at cross purposes for so long, but it was time to stop that. Maybe his plan to show her what she meant to him had been too much of a Carly plan, but his own ways hadn't been working.

"What do I do now?" he asked then thinking about who he was asking said "Nevermind."

Walking out the door, he stopped and tried to figure out who there was left to help him. All the usual avenues had lead him to this moment, why not try all the unused ones. Racking his brain for someone devious enough to help and who had been similar situations, Jason shuddered but knew what he had to do if he wanted his life back.

Elizabeth was working on getting her files up to date when the woman who looked like Emily showed up. "Rebecca, is there a reason you are just standing there?"

"Can we talk?"

"Not right now. How about meeting me at Jak-wait, how about the bar at the Metrocourt."

"I want to avoid Nik, is there any place else?"

Thinking on it, Elizabeth said "The Recovery room, it is a small bar on the other side of the hospital. It tends to be a pickup bar, so expect to get hit on."

Hearing Alexis entering the area, Elizabeth debated whether applying for a restraining order against the DA would ruin her career, she said "Alexis don't start."

"I'm not here about Sam, do you know how to reach Dr. Winters? Kristina needs to see her."

"Check with Admissions, I think she has her group sessions today at the Community Center." with that Elizabeth went back to work, then heard Alexis sigh and say "I am sorry about Lucky, no matter what you were close to each other."

"I feel bad for the Spencers, I talked to Laura, she can't come home and with Luke disappearing, Nik is handling the burial."

"No service." she asked. Then hearing her phone ringing answered it and told someone thank you. "That was Shadybrook, Sam is going to be fine, they say she is well."

Elizabeth felt Lizzie rise and she picked up the phone to call Mac Scorpio, she had heard he wanted to talk to Sam about the crumpled picture she had drawn of Jason playing pool at Kelly's when the man had come to talk to her about it.

After finding out that he had been at the mental institution when she came to, when he told her that Sam claimed to have been threatened by the killer, Elizabeth realized that it was a ploy to get Jason's attention.

"Elizabeth, we have to talk." she looked up to see Monica standing there.

"Monica, I am behind on this paperwork, can it wait."

"No." she insisted. "How about meeting me after work at the house. I just want to talk about Jake and what is going on. No recriminations, I promise."

Looking at Emily's mom, Elizabeth reached out and said "Jason wanted to tell you last year, I was worried about others finding out. I am sorry about that."

"Don't be. I understand, trust me, of all people I do understand." she said thinking about her lies about AJ.

Agent Raynor hung up after talking to the man at Witness Protection. Both agreed that it was safer to keep him with Spinelli than for him to be walking the streets.

Seeing Maxie Jones coming in for her usual hissy fit, he wondered when Winifred would return. She seemed to be able to deal with the blond. "Miss Jones, save your breath, you are not going to see Mr. Spinelli, you are not sending food to Mr. Spinelli and you are not talking on the phone to him."

"But I-"

"Don't you have job to do? Someplace you need to be?" he said. Then looking at his phone saw the number and answered it right away. "Tell me you have good news."

"No, he disappeared, but I am working on getting his daughter to trust me." said the young man as he watched the blond talking to her ex-boyfriend. Zachara seemed upset, wondering if it was something he could use, he moved in closer then heard about his sister.

"The Zachara woman is dead?" he asked his boss.

"Yes, killer changed his M.O. a bit though. They are talking about sending in a VCT team, four dead and not a lot of clues."

Maxie walked away, annoyed at the way the man was ignoring her. Seeing the file on Harpers' desk she grabbed it wondering why he was looking at such an old case. "Detective Harper why are you looking into this."

"I don't answer to you, now I suggest you return that file to my desk and leave. Your father has told you repeatedly to keep your hands off those files."

Sam walked into Wyndamere fuming. "Why am I coming here?"

"It isn't safe and I can't reach Jason to protect you." said Alexis as she paced the room. Lainey Winters was in talking to Kristina and she was worried about all three of her daughters now.

"I can take care of myself." she insisted. "Now I have to track down Jason and tell him what I remember so that he can find Sonny's killer."

Jason thanked Cody and wondered why Max hadn't called him back. "Cody have you seen Max today?"

"No, I sent Milo to help at Alexis Davis' house but I never saw his brother."

"In charge just one day and already losing track of your men?" asked Ric as he walked into the office.

"Lansing what do you want?" asked Jason.

"Someone got to the judge and he sighed off on Elizabeth not getting charged with perjury then this afternoon, I received this." he said handing Jason the subpoena

Jason read it and wondering why Elizabeth had called Ric to court. Calling Diane he asked about the attorney who Elizabeth had hired and was surprised to learn that he had been sent a letter too.

Thinking back on his co-conspirator's idea, Jason just shrugged off Ric's digging for answers and suggested he ask Alexis to represent him in court, saying "I am sure you have heard the lawyer joke about a lawyer representing himself having a fool for a client."

Ric saw that Morgan didn't know anymore than he did, so he left and headed out to see Alexis.

Carly bit the bullet and waited on the porch. Seeing Robin arriving with her daughter, she swallowed the snark and said "We need to talk, I need your help."

"Of course you do, why else would you deign to come to my house. What do you want Carly, I am rather busy at the moment."

"I need your help to get Elizabeth and Jason together."

"Why would I help you with anything?" she asked. "Also what do you think will be the outcome? Do you not realize that Elizabeth would rather have Ric Lansing's help than yours and considering her dislike for him, that is saying something."

"Just listen to me. I screwed something up for Jason, he had a plan and I had a plan. He tried to get me to leave it alone and I really made things worse."

Seeing she was sincere, Robin sighed and said "Carly, our involvement will only make things worse. Don't you get that?"

"I owe Jason, Robin, you have no idea how much I owe him."

"Wow, Carly having a moment of unselfishness. Sorry. Elizabeth and Jason need to work through this one their own." with that she went to call Aidan and warn him that Carly was up to something. "Where are you guys?"

"Elizabeth is visiting Monica Quartermaine." he said. "She just arrived at the house."

Monica and Tracy looked at one another as they set up Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, I need a favor." said Tracy had overheard Edward and Jason, she knew their plan wouldn't work.

Doubting the older woman, she looked at Tracy as if to say what.

"You know about Monica's little problem, well I need some house wine and it tastes bitter to me. Since I don't drink cheap wines, I was hoping you would do a taste test for me." said Tracy hoping she had slipped in just the right amount of insults to make it believable.

"Fine, I will be glad to help." she said sweetly wondering about dumping the bottle on Tracy's head.

Monica waited until she left and then felt guilty about what she was about to do. Walking to the kitchen, she nodded at Alice who handed her the keys. Placing the bottles around, the maid left and went to ensure that Mr. Edward was far away.

Splashing the wine on herself, Monica placed the call.

"Morgan." Jason said when he saw it was Monica.

Hearing nothing, he went to hang up then heard the shallow breathing. "Monica are you okay?"

Then he heard the sound of a bottle breaking and then what sounded like crying. Finally he heard her voice but it was off in the distance. "Key, whas where are youse, where are you little key. I need you, I want to get sompin to drink. THERE, you ares."

Jason head what sounded like someone singing about bottles of wine on the wall and taking one down to pass it around, then another crash.

Walking out towards his bike, Jason listened worried when he heard the sound of a large crash then what sounded like moaning. Rushing to the mansion, he saw that there were no cars in the drive and went he parked around back that the garage was empty except for Monica's car.

Rushing in through the kitchen, he saw the mess and the bottles of wine. Hoping that Monica hadn't drunk all of it, he followed the trail of debris. Arriving at the stairs he heard the sound of crashing around and someone calling for help.

At first he was certain it was Elizabeth but that had to be wrong. Shaking his head, he tried to clear her from his mind as he rushed down to the heavy door that lead to the wine cellar. Seeing the key ring on the ground, he tried to find the correct one.

Getting it in the lock finally; he was pushing the door open. Seeing Elizabeth sitting on the bench holding her leg, he rushed in and then heard the sound of the door closing behind him as she shouted. "Stop it from closing, the inside handle is broken."

Jason went to push it open but felt it closing anyhow. Then the sound of footsteps leaving. "I think we are locked in here."

"What was your first clue?" she asked dryly. "I can't believe I let a Quartermaine trick me, what was I thinking."

"Elizabeth, are you okay?"

"No, I am an idiot. Like Tracy would have cheap wine anyplace." she replied. "The thing is what would give Monica and Tracy cause to work together? I know its not about Jake. They promised to stay out of it."

"What?" he asked then realized that Monica had set him up too.

"For the record I am counter suing you as well as Carly. Since Diane filed for you, I hired someone else."

Jason sat down and asked if she had talked to Diane today.

"Oh, she told me about the error and I don't care. I am not suing you about Jake. I am suing you and a few other people."

"I know Lansing told me."

"Ric came running to you, didn't he. What a weasel." she said.

"Elizabeth what are you counter suing me for?" he asked before sitting down, he got the feeling that this visit to the wine cellar was going to be a long one.

"Breach of Contract and a host of other things." she said with a grin. "I asked for four things. Your motorcycle, your leather jacket, your pool table and your memory box."

Jason raised his head and looked sharply at her. "Why?"

"I am going to burn the jacket and the contents of that box and donate that table to the community center. As for your bike, I am going to take it apart and sell it for parts."

Jason reached inside his pocket for his phone, in spite of knowing he would not get any bars. "How about a deal, I give you those items in exchange you listen to me, really listen. Not interrupting to interpret what I saw or stop me because you are afraid of what you might hear."

Thinking on her promise to Robin, she said "I will listen, but I am not canceling the lawsuit."

"Why not?" he asked. "Also why the restraining order on Sam, why didn't you tell Mac what she did?"

"Because, I won't give up my leverage." she admitted. "There is no way I am ever letting her near my children again."

Jason knew that he had to start telling Elizabeth what had been going on, and decided to start there. "That is why I have been letting her hang around. I knew that if she was there, I would NEVER allow myself to be near Jake or you."

Starting to say something, Elizabeth thought about it and sighed. "Jason, Maxie Jones has been visiting GH and Mercy telling others things for me to overhear. So once and for all, did you sleep with Sam or even think of sleeping with her during the last six months?"

"No." He said softly. "Don't you get how much I still love you. I made that mistake before, I was not going to do it again. I am nowhere near ready to even think of making that kind of mistake. Some part of me couldn't give up hope for us, in spite of everything going on."

"Then why did you walk away, Jason it hurt so badly. Our little boy was missing and you were off looking with the woman who had endangered him before. I was at fault, too. When you suggested sending us someplace safe, I was thinking of our safe house and in the middle of all that danger all I could think was that I didn't want her in our private refuge."

"That was why you accepted Lucky's idea, I had no intention of sending you there. I had this safe house where we sent Michael and Morgan, that was where I was going to send you. It was someplace new, that no one had ever been to. Dammit, Elizabeth, what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't." she breathed as tears flew down her face. "I just wasn't. It was so hard, you were pushing me away again and it felt like I was living in limbo. Then Jake was taken, I shot and killed someone to protect Sam, instead of being in the room to protect the boys. They were taken because I was protecting someone who had endangered them, what was I thinking?"

Jason saw the tears and realized it was more than likely the first time since the kidnapping she had dealt with killing one of the kidnappers. Pulling her into his arms to comfort her, he realized that his body didn't seem to get the message that now was not the time for reactions like that.

Rubbing her back and kissing her hair, Jason just kept saying it will be alright. When he heard the tears and sobs stopping, he kept holding her hoping that now they could talk about the past few months truthfully. Instead he realized she had fallen asleep.

Kissing her, he maneuvered them into a more comfortable position and was soon asleep himself.

Outside, Tracy was mentally breathing a sigh of relief that Jason didn't seem too angry about being locked in.. Turning to Monica she said "Where did you get this camera?"

"Its part of a system they want to install at the hospital to allow us to have consultations with other surgeons during surgery."

"You should buy it, it works fine. What about those two, are we going to watch them all night?"

"Tracy I haven't signed the letter keeping you from jail yet, you will help me until I say so. But no we are now going to keep Carly and everyone else away. Thank god for Epiphany."

"I thought Carly was your new pal." asked Tracy.

"No, but it was convenient to allow her to think that. Now by tomorrow morning we need to take care of some things. I can't believe Luke did a runner, for once we could have used his brand of help." said Monica as she led the way out of the cellar.

Spinelli saw that someone new had arrived. Ten minutes later he was giving his new roommate a headache. The killer didn't intend to kill the kid, just make sure he was terrified enough to have to flee town. But first he had to stage their escape and he wanted to set up his next victim.

Five minutes later, Spinelli took the secret phone from the man and tried to reach Jason. When he was unavailable he called Sam.

"I will come and get you." she assured him. Hearing about his friend, she grimaced until he reminded her that he was going to be wanted and that his new friend would be able to help them hide.

"He says he has a boat we can hide on." said Spinelli while petting the lumbering dog that was crawling all over the furniture. After hanging up, he said "Nice dog."

"Yes, she is. I acquired her not long before her owner died." said the man not telling him that the stupid woman had been his first victim. What had started in 2006 was now ending in 2009. But he intended to walk away a free man.

It had taken years to plot this out. The first insipid victim had been an accident, he had been working and things just happened, so he had just gave her a needle full of nothing but air.

Soon it would be all over. All those who had stolen his chance at happiness away would soon be gone. So there were a few extra deaths along the way, sometimes things just happened. He wished his grandmother was here to see this. She herself had died trying to return him to his family, thought Peter. Soon, soon it would be all over. 

A hint: Steve Hardy hold the key to the mystery.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Mac was working at the computer to make a composite of the witness from earlier. Something about him was off, what, he knew he had met the man before. An hour later, he printed the picture and took it with him. Meeting Harper at his old offices, he saw that the detective had created a chart of everything that had happened. "What do we have?"

"Okay, Mitchell Coleman, sleazy but not really dirty. There is a fight in his current business, he is disarmed and dragged to his old strip club."

"There he is given strong drugs to keep him a wake and feeling pain, but the inability to scream. The coroner places his time of death as 4:45 AM. Before he is killed his organs are harvested and his blood drained." said Mac.

"The body parts are handed over to be transferred with GH logos on the containers. We find out that they were stolen from the hospital. The blood is used to leave messages for Spencer in regards to his past. We later find out that Jason Morgan, not Lucky took out Manny Ruiz."

"We also learn that Spencer is lying, telling people that he has reunited with Elizabeth Webber, but why?" continued Harper.

"Because Spencer probably believed it was a matter of time. He had used their past to get back with her before and know he has a way to pull her heartstrings, her sons. She isn't interested though, so why lie?" asked Mac. The more he thought about it, he smiled at Harper than said "The lies were for Morgan, he wanted him to back away."

"Then we find Spencer dead the next day at Deception, where he photographed Elizabeth. There are messages left for Morgan, about Elizabeth leading us to believe that it is all about her. Morgan gets a call via Spinelli that makes him believe that Sam McCall is in danger."

They listened to the call, then Harper said. "I get what happened there. You said the geek gave Morgan the message, more than likely he interpreted it as being about McCall."

"Jason has his breakdown at Elizabeth's house, thinking she has been killed. Instead we are there telling Audrey about her late husband's body. Why dig up Steve Hardy and how is it connected to this case and why steal the medical files of a dead man?"

"The killer's targets; he wanted their blood types and such, but Hardy who knows?" said Harper. "Our next victim, wait, we need to deal with Sam breaking into the crime scene. Why film her, why not kill her there?"

"I don't know, but that sketch she found, Elizabeth drew that of Jason a few years ago. Morgan said that it was in 2001, so how did our killer get a hold of it." Mac thought about that, then called Elizabeth's cell and got her voice mail. Needing an answer right away, he tried Morgan, same result. Finally he called Nik Cassadine.

"Cassadine, does Elizabeth still have her art studio?"

"Yes, but she hasn't used it recently. She trashed it while Jake was gone. Why?"

"Do you know how to reach her, I need to ask her a few questions about it?"

"No, I was looking for her myself, Rebecca Shaw and her were supposed to meet and she stood her up."

Mac said if you locate her have her call me. Then hanging up called the number that Anna had given him, he learned that Elizabeth was visiting with Monica. "That mobster Morgan showed up, they have been here a few hours together."

Mac knew that that had to be about Jake, so he let it go for now.

"Okay, now next we have Corinthos, did we ever find out why he was visiting his old building?"

"No, Morgan and he had no meetings scheduled. Also the primary scene was his former penthouse. Our killer disabled the security system and brought the body parts down the main elevator while sending Corinthos' body down the freight elevator, but why?"

"To send some kind of message?" asked Harper.

"Next up is his wife, who is disabled at the airport with poison. She is pronounced dead and taken away. The men said she was in the body bag when they arrived to get the ambulance, but not when they went to place her in it. We find her at the old sanitarium, boiled from the inside out after being harvested the same way as the other victims."

"All four crime scenes have their sins listed in blood, all four have various quotes on the walls, and all four have some connection to their pasts. Except not really Claudia. What is the connection between her personally and the place she was found. The only connection was Johnny."

Mac heard his phone ringing and listened to Agent Raynor. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, they are gone. Would Morgan do something this stupid?"

"No, but Sam McCall would. She got out of Shadybrook today."

"I will arrest her if I even find she had anything to do with this. My ass is on the line. That witness from today's crime scene is in Federal Witness Protection. He saw something he shouldn't a few years ago and went ape. He just got out of a padded cell not that long ago."

"Is he dangerous?" asked Mac then rolled his eyes when the agent replied that that information was need to know.

Sam got them onto the boat and suggested they lay low. "Spinelli I am going to go find Jason, you two stay here, okay. Get on the computer I had Maxie get you, find out anything you can about the connections to the victims."

"Sure things, fair Samantha." he said going to the second part of the room. Seeing the dog, Sam grimaced. The thing reminded her of the huge thing that that blond bimbo Courtney used to have. "Nice dog."

"He is actually. I need to contact my mother soon, she tends to freak when I am out of reach."

"That will have to wait, the FBI will have her place being watched." she said. "What can you tell me about the crime scene."

"Listen, I am not telling you anything. The only reason I came was because I need to reach my family. You aren't exactly the sort to inspire confidence in your ability to solve crimes. Nancy Drew you ain't." he said. "Now if you will excuse me."

Pushing past her, when she pulled the gun, he said "I removed the clip earlier."

Sam realized too late that the gun did feel lighter, as the man walked off the boat and turned and saluted her saying. "What a joke, no wonder Morgan has to rescue you all the time."

Lulu and Maxie were looking for Luke as they slipped onto the Haunted Star. They saw Ethan standing in the shadows talking to Agent Raynor who had entered just before them. "I have been told to send you back to Washington. They are letting the case against Spencer go."

"I am this close to getting this guy." he groaned. "Why are they giving up?"

"Orders from Interpol, they think they have a better case than we do."

"Fine, but I need to make sure that his daughter is okay."

"Tell me you didn't develop feelings for this girl. You know that there is a possibility she is your sister."

"She isn't. Neither is that doctor, my mother lied." he said with a shrug. They walked past Maxie covering Lulu's mouth while hiding in a small stateroom.

When the footsteps faded, Lulu through a fit. "How dare he?"

"Lulu, deal with that later, you heard his boss, he was ordered off the case. We need to find a way to help Spinelli."

Jason and Elizabeth sat quietly for the first few minutes after they woke up. "Are you ready to listen?"

"I will try." she said. "Jason I am sorry, I keep putting up walls and attacking."

"I know you, I know how you react. It hurts when you do it but I do understand." he said. "I run and try to protect, acting like a Quartermaine sometimes. So much for letting people live their lives for themselves."

As they kept talking, Elizabeth realized that Maxie had either been lied to or had been deliberately trying to hurt her. He explained that yes, Sam had gone to Florida with him, but not because he had wanted her there. Then he explained that he had nothing to do with the Spinelli party. "It just took too much energy to fight things."

"I do understand that. Until a few weeks ago, I was doing that as well. Then I saw Lucky with the boys, he was saying he loved Cam, then added oh, you too Jake. My parents used to do that, I realized at that moment that Lucky had lied, he couldn't forget who Jake was and be a father to him."

"Grams pointed out recently that I was letting a man I didn't respect raise my sons , did I want them to think it was okay to treat women the way Lucky did. She is right, I would have been better off raising them as a single mother than letting Lucky be around. I am sorry, I thought he would be a good choice. What was I thinking?"

"That the Lucky you know as a young girl was still in there. He wasn't." Jason said. "I always understood that, it hurt but I did get it."

"Funny thing is, I knew, deep down, I knew." she said sadly. "I just knew that grams and others saw him as someone to respect. I knew the truth, but I guess I thought that I was wrong. I mean I had been before."

As they kept talking about all that had happened, Jason realized that his own fears and feelings of inadequacy need to be discussed. Elizabeth looked at him shocked then said "But why would you feel like that with only me, why not with Sam, or even Courtney?"

"Elizabeth, Sam and Courtney, they were both, well..." Jason's voice trailed off then figured out how to explain. "You are looked up to, you are truly a decent person. Can you honestly think of anyone, who would say the same about either Sam or Courtney?"

"Jax, Carly about Courtney."

"You have that one wrong." he replied. "Jax wanted to rescue her, take care of Courtney. He thought she needed to be saved from my world. Then later, he saw her for who she really was, but it was too late, he was married to her. As for Carly, she liked that Courtney fawned all over her, that was all."

"Jason, I have always looked at you and saw just you. That is what part of my problem was." she admitted. "To me it looked like you were willing to be with them in spite of the danger and with me it was all warning about the danger. But you really didn't get that I love you, truly do love you."

"I never felt like I was worthy, my god, Elizabeth. You are the one person I think of when I think of something good, you always have been." he said holding her hands tightly.

"But why?" she asked confused. "I lied, I took the easy way out more than once, why would you think of me as good."

"Elizabeth, I know good and I know bad, you are not bad. Even when we were at our angriest with one another, I always knew that if I came to you for help, to have you help me, you would. Without question." Elizabeth felt Jason pushing her hair behind her ears, and looked up from the ground. Seeing the intense look in his eyes, she grabbed his hand tight. "

But I have never wanted to drag you into this world. A world with guards, and blood and guns. A world of lies. Elizabeth the secret about Jake, yes it is a big lie, but in my world it is such a small lie compared to what I do every since day."

As the two cleared the air, Jason and Elizabeth finally got that they let down their guard. Monica checked the monitor every twenty minutes and at eleven thirty, she saw them kissing and from the tears on both their faces knew all would be well. Debating letting them out, she instead went to call Robin Scorpio.

"It worked."

"Good, I knew as soon as Carly left here that something had to be done. Thanks Monica."

"You are welcome, Tracy is even now putting the second part in place for the moment they realize that they have options."

Sam knocked on Carly's door, Diane had had a file on her desk when she had checked with the attorney about Jason's whereabouts. Seeing a light come on and the sound of footsteps, she smirked when the tousled blond let her in.

"What do you want Sam?" she asked while getting a glass of water.

"Where is Jason? I need to talk to him about Spinelli?"

"Have you asked the guards where he is?" she said knowing that Sam would have only come to her as a last resort.

"They don't know, they are looking for Max as well. When you talk to Jason, tell him I have Spinelli someplace safe."

"Sam how safe could he be with you?" she snarked before locking the door after the annoying woman.

Sam called Spinelli who told her that he had traced Jason's phone to the Quartermaine mansion. Wondering if he was telling Monica about Jake. Arriving, she was grabbed from behind and told that she wasn't welcome there.

"I almost married into this family and am dating Dr. Quartermaine's son." she said pulled her arm out of his tight grip.

"Really, I heard about that, funny thing is, I also heard he found you sleeping with your stepfather. Now leave. I know all about you Miss McCall, I know about the woman who kidnapped Jake Morgan, I even know about the two men you hired. As well as that you led the kidnappers to the Morgan boy the second time. So much for being some sort of go to girl. I wouldn't go to you if I had no other choice left."

"I am more than capable of taking care of myself and I have helped plenty of people with my skills."

"Really, what skills? From what I have seen that seems to only extend to wearing skimpy clothes and running in heels and using sex to try and get what you want. Any hooker can do that. Now get off this estate."

Sam saw him reaching for his phone and made plans to sneak past him. "Devane."

HE saw her out of the corner of his eye and grabbed her while assuring Mac Scorpio he would hold her after telling him he had the woman. Hanging up he said with a smirk. "Well what do you know, the FBI is looking for you in regards to kidnapping and for grabbing a federal witness. Both of those are class A felonies."

When the police arrived Cruz shook his head when Sam tried to get him to release her. "I can't the FBI will have me fired for that." As they pulled around the back, Sam saw that was Jason's motorcycle parked on the driveway along with some sort of fancy van. Reaching into her pockets, she maneuvered her cell phone out and sent Jason a text message, hoping he came to get her out of jail soon.

At five the next morning, Jason and Elizabeth heard a click as the door opened and Monica's sheepish face came around the wide door. "I am sorry for locking you in, but I wanted the two of you to talk. Then I fell asleep listening to Tracy."

As they walked upstairs, the twosome filled Monica in on their decisions. "Grams won't be happy, but I think that she will come to accept it."

Jason didn't want to let go of Elizabeth's hand, worried. They worked well one on one, but tended to fall apart when others entered their world. "We are going to be dealing with a few things, quicker than others."

"As long as I don't have to hear Tracy say I told you so, I-" they all could hear the sound of Edward hollering at Tracy who was trying to keep him out of the dining room.

"Tracy, I could care less if that loser husband of yours is in there naked. I want my breakfast, I have a big day today." Jason's eyes widened and then he turned to Monica and said "You better let him in, but keep him here. Elizabeth and I will be right back."

Elizabeth found herself dragged up the back stairs. "Jason, what is it?" she whispered.

"I forgot to tell you something." he said rubbing the back of his neck feeling embarrassed. "I had an idea, I was going to force you to marry me, that was what the lawsuit was about."

"How was that going to work and why are you so worried about it now?"

"That is just it. After Carly blew my plan out of the water by filing the lawsuit, I sort of went to Edward for help."

Elizabeth fell onto the bed and not sure she heard him right asked "What did you say?"

"I went to Edward. I needed someone outside the usual suspects and he was devious to do what I needed."

"Jason what did you have to give him in return, Edward never does anything without an agenda."

"Dinner once a month, here."

Looking up at him in shock, Elizabeth asked "So how was filing for custody going to help you get me to marry you?"

"Well, I knew I wouldn't get custody, so I was going to make it look like it was a possibility. Convince you that I had the judge in my pocket and that I would take Jake away if you didn't marry me."

"Jason Morgan, I can't believe you would ..." Elizabeth started laughing. "I love you."

"What?" he asked now confused.

"I love you." she said clearly. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

"I love you too, but why are you laughing?"

"Because I am mad at you but don't even care. I am going to cancel my lawsuit against you, I promise if you do the same."

"How about this, you marry me in exchange I will give you the items you wanted on that list of yours."

"Keep them." she said with a smile. "All except that box. Jason, get rid of your box of pain, no more looking back."

"Fine, as long as you remember two things. The first is that you promised to never mention Edward and my deal to anyone. Second that you don't drop the lawsuit against Carly."

"I don't intend to take it all the way to court, Jason. I just wanted to prove a point to her."

"Well, we aren't dropping it. She has interfered one too many times."

Standing Elizabeth kissed him then said "I have to find Rebecca Shaw, she wanted to talk to me last night."

"She bothers me." he admitted. "Having someone walking around with Emily's face but not Emily's sweetness bothers me."

Edward was walking down the hospital corridor, practically waltzing. Jason had done it. He was marrying the mother of his son and hopefully there would be more children for him to spoil. Seeing Nik he asked the younger man if he had talked to Lulu. He felt bad about her losing her brother but was grateful that his death had been the catalyst to getting his grandson together with the woman he loved.

"She is running around doing something for that kid Spinelli." Seeing Rebecca hanging up her phone he walked over in time to hear her telling Matt Hunter that she had finally reached Elizabeth.

"She got held up and forgot she was supposed to meet me. We are going to talk tomorrow."

"Good, she is close to Cassadine and Spencer, she would be the one to tell you what to do."

Matt saw that Maxie Jones was coming towards him. "We don't have any assignments, do we?"

"No, I was looking for Elizabeth Webber?"

Recalling what Robin said, he replied "She has the day off, try her house."

"She isn't there." said Maxie. Why couldn't the woman be where she was supposed to be, Sam had sent her a text wanting her to keep an eye on the saint of GH so that she could help Spinelli.

Alexis let Sam into her office and said "Why did you do it?"

"They have no proof of anything." Sam huffed. "How can they arrest me like that?"

"Sam, they held you on a material witness order. Now if you know where this kid is you should tell them. You are not capable of protecting him from this threat and with Jason missing he is vulnerable."

"Jason is just at the Quartermaines. We will protect him, better than the police will. YOU know that."

Mac was just arriving at his office when he got the call from Elizabeth Webber about his message. She was baffled how anyone could have gotten the sketch, explaining it had been lost a few years before. "The whole sketchbook was lost, Mac. I had it at Jason's then it went missing."

"Elizabeth do you know how to reach your brother Steven?"

"It will take a little bit, but yes. Why?"

"I can't tell you right now, but may I get that number?"

Mac went to call Anna, then giving her the number was shocked when he had no sooner started his paperwork for the day than he got a call. "Commissioner, you were looking for me."

"Steven, I know this is going to sound strange, but do you have anyway to verify where you are?"

Looking around, Steven saw the perfect way. "There is an agent for the WSB here in Chad, will he do?"

Mac listened as he was assured that Steven was in Chad. "Thanks Sean, but why are you there?"

"Possible infectious disease. Do you want Webber again?"

"Yes." said Mac. He had been so sure that Steven Webber was his killer. "Steven do you have a twin?"

"Not that I am aware of. Why?"

Mac explained then Steven said "My mother sold me, then told my father I was dead. The only other person who knew the truth was my grandmother who killed my adopted mother and made it look like some woman my dad was in love with did it."

Mac went to get the files and saw that Heather Webber had been a patient in Roselawn. How was this all connected?

Heading over to meet Elizabeth, he saw that Jason Morgan was glaring at someone across the street from Elizabeth's house. Worried that Aidan had been caught he saw that Morgan was talking on the phone while the man across the street was doing that same.

When the mobster had hung up he asked "How long have they been there watching her?"

"For over a year." he admitted.

Mac shook his head at the lengths the two of them had gone for one another and asked Elizabeth if the man in the picture looked familiar.

"He looks a lot like Steven but there are some differences. The chin in more rounded and his eyes are closer together. Who is he?"

"A witness, but I was worried when I saw the resemblance. Elizabeth did your parents ever talk about what happened when Steven was a baby?"

"Not around me, but you could ask Monica, she was once married to my dad and might know something, or even Bobbie Spencer. She lived here then."

"Thanks, what about Heather Webber, what can you tell me about her?"

"She is has a few screws loose, and would do anything for money." said Elizabeth.

"If she had twins, would she keep it a secret?" asked Mac wanting her opinion.

"Maybe if she thought there was something in it for her."

Carly was waiting for the attorney to join them. When Alcazar's attorney saw the name, she told the man representing Elizabeth that she couldn't stay on as Carly's attorney. "Mrs. Jacks you have one week to get a new attorney."

Hoping that by then, Elizabeth calmed down, Carly went to try and get someone who would help her no questions asked. She had to find Lulu. There was no way she was letting Jason down. He was going to get what he wanted, and that was Elizabeth and her sons. Carly had already gone to Diane who had reminded her that she was Elizabeth's attorney of record, not hers.

"What about the case against me."

"Since I have represented you in the past, I was going to second chair the case, with a Chinese wall between that attorney and me."

"A what?" Carly had a bad feeling about this, but knew that if she got Jason what he wanted, he would make Elizabeth drop the suit.

"It means that what I knew couldn't be used until he discovered it another way."

Shaking her head, Carly had left the office more determined than ever to get things straightened out. She went through every single scenario that Sonny had ever used and wondering if throwing a surprise wedding might do to get them together.

Jason and Elizabeth entered their private refuge removing each others clothes before the front door was even closed. Jason tossed Elizabeth's bra behind them as he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom and tossed her on the bed.

Pulling off his jeans, he was thwarted when he realized that he still had his shoes on. Elizabeth had been tossing the pillows off the bed when she found herself being pinned to the bed after he had finally freed himself from his clothes.

"Warning you right now. It has been to long and this is going to be quick." he said even as he thrust into her.

"Jason, has anyone ever told you that you talk to much?" she panted as while wrapping her legs around his hips. As they found themselves without the breath to talk, Jason bend down to kiss her needing to feel her soft lips as he was where he belonged for the first time in eight months.

When they had both came, Jason grimaced when he realized he hadn't protect them. "I didn't wear anything."

"I haven't..." she said "What about you?"

"No." he said firmly with a kiss. "Never even thought about it."

"Well, I am sure it is going to be fine." she said.

Jason felt a bit disappointed, some part of his wished it was possible for her to be pregnant but he knew that now was not the right time. They needed time as a family, with Cameron and Jake before making plans for another baby.

Mac took the call and said "I am on my way."

Arriving at the scene he saw Carly standing there with Jasper Jacks who was holding his wife and trying to get her to go to the hospital.

"Carly, isn't this the house where Ric held you hostage?" asked Mac. "What are you doing here."

"Jax got a text message, I insisted on coming with him." she said.

"When we arrived there were words written in blood on the wall. We went to open the door when we saw the television and realized that the camera's inside had been reversed."

"Carly, if Jax got the call why is the note to you?"

"I don't know." she replied. "Mac can I get out of here now?"

"Sure, but for the moment could you keep this to yourself until we tell Alexis."

Shuddering, Carly said yes. Looking at the screen once again, she said "The killer did this, didn't he?"

"It looks that way." said Mac as they left. Cruz and Harper stepped back to let the people from the Port Charles Zoo in. "We have possibly twenty or twenty-five snakes in that room."

The zoologist said "Someone really doesn't like your guy, those are copperheads, and they had to be woken up earlier for them to be here now. They are going to be pissed off and biting anything they see."

Mac walked outside along with Raynor who showed him the photos. "This guy broke as many laws as his brother, but why here and why snakes?"

"This was the house where he held Carly and the snakes, who knows maybe because he was an attorney."

Mac couldn't help remembering that Elizabeth had been attacked by a snake set on her by this man's ex-lover Faith Roscoe.

Sam was trying all the safe houses when she saw Max lying in one with a bullet wound. "Max, what happened? Was Jason with you?"

"Cody." he whispered. "Ask Cody..."

"Max, I don't have time. I will call for an ambulance." she snapped. "No one has seen Jason, do you know of any safe houses that I don't."

Max shook his head yes and whispered the address and tried to tell her to ask Cody, but she just called 911 and left to find Jason. Max felt himself fading away and knew he wasn't going to make it. Cursing himself as he died for ever trusting Sonny Corinthos, Max knew the moment he died. He heard the clock strike twelve even as he drew his last breath.

A few minutes later, a man entered and said "Sorry, but I need those more than you do." he said taking the paperwork that proved that Sonny Corinthos had turned over his business years ago to Luke Spencer. Problem was that they were faked. All that was left was to find the secrets that Coleman held, and thanks to Max trying to tell Sam, he now knew that Cody Paul was the key.

Spencer had been plotting for this moment since the day that Sonny had refused to hire him to help last year. Too old, too old? Sonny, take that." he thought to himself as he walked out of the room holding onto the papers.

He would let Johnny run things for him, but first Luke had one thing to do, he had to track down Jason Morgan and make sure that the younger man understood that Luke was not going to let him stand in his way.

"I'm hungry." said Elizabeth leaning over to kiss Jason's bare shoulder blade. "Please feed me?"

Chuckling softly, he said "What would you like?"

"An omelet. With toast, and juice and maybe some apple strips."

"Did I make you work up an appetite." he said playfully. "Poor baby."

"Feed me Morgan, then I will make your heart stop." She said while giving him a playful leer.

"Fine, but don't bother getting dressed." he said. On his way through to the kitchen with visions of Elizabeth and him in the shower, he grabbed all their clothing and tossed into the bedroom. He saw Elizabeth getting up and walking to the pile.

Jason was in the kitchen with his jeans barely done up when Sam let herself in. "Jason thank god."

Starting to turn, he grabbed the towel and tossed it on his shoulder while buttoning up his jeans. Sam was eying him like he was a slab of beef as she stood there wondering why he was cooking. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, I got Spinelli out." she said proud of herself.

"Why would you do that?" he asked. "Nevermind, get out of here."

Sam was stunned, what was going on? Why was Jason being like this what had happened in the last few days.

"Jason, if you want to find out for sure if that shower will fit us, you had better hurry up." said Elizabeth entering wearing Jason's t-shirt. She was still looking at her toes and never realized that Sam was there. "By the way, you ripped all the buttons off my shirt, so you will-" she saw the look on Sam's face and smirked at the annoyance.

"Hello, Sam. What are you doing in my house?" she asked sweetly.

"Your house?" she said sneering.

"Mine, well mine and Jason's." she said crossing to the man in question.

"Sam, you should have left well enough alone, now leave. Go back and arrange for Spinelli to turn himself in, now."

"I need you, Max is dead and you have to come WITH ME. So that we can figure this out. You can go back to playing house later." she said with a venomous look at Elizabeth.

"Max is on a special assignment for Sonny. Stop it Sam, I don't believe a word you say." Jason saw the look on her face and knew that she had truly believed they would get back together. "Sam. What ever you thought was going on between us, it wasn't. I am sorry I used you to make myself stay away from Elizabeth and the boys. I knew that as long as you were around, I would stay away from my family."

Sam glared at Elizabeth speechless as the woman looked at her and said "If you were anyone else, I would feel bad for you, but since it is you, I don't."

Turning to Jason, Sam said "When you are ready to play with the big boys again, come look me up. Trust me, she will bore you again soon enough."

Jason wrapped his arms around Elizabeth and said "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just wish she hadn't seem me wearing nothing but your t-shirt, your ripped t-shirt at that."

"It looks like you are going to have to make an honest man of me soon, we both know she won't keep her mouth shut." he said sighing with regret. "So much for doing this quietly."

The snakes were gone, and Mac and Agent Raynor looked in as the coroner examined his body. "Heart and lungs still here. All that is missing is his cornea's. The snakes bit him over ninety percent of his body. My guess is that either the shock of the snake bites or the shock of the removal of his eyes were what killed him."

"Time of death?" asked Mac.

"From Liver temp, I would say between 4:00 and 5:00 this morning."

Alexis was pushing her way in and saw the body being loaded onto the gurney. "Mac when are you going to bring in Elizabeth Webber and find out who is doing this and how it is connected to her."

"We have no proof..."

"Ric and Lucky were married to her, she is connect to Sonny and his wife through Jason and her son is named after that bar that Coleman owned."

"Alexis-"

"Come on, Mac." she protested. "What more do you want."

"Some evidence." he said not wanting her to know what was going on. Raynor had agreed that Alexis Davis was too personally involved and they were dealing with a federal attorney on the case.

"Alexis, if you think about there are quite a few people in this town connected to those people you mentioned."

"Yes, but how many are connected to Steve Hardy?" she asked waspishly.

"Not a lot, but Alexis, Elizabeth isn't the only one. Even Morgan is connected them."

Alexis left wanting to make sure that someone listened to her, she knew that Sam was in danger and her daughter was going to die because she refused to let anyone protect her. She just knew that this was connected to Elizabeth, it had to be.

Answering her phone, she stopped and thought about what had been said before rushing off to find Sam, her daughter had just been found sitting in the bar at the Metrocourt. According to the bartender Sam had drank three bourbons straight before wandering out to the deck.

"What has Morgan done now?" she thought to herself when she saw Sam sitting on the edge of the wall.

Elizabeth hung up the phone, then turned to tell Jason. "She said she wasn't surprised. She thinks I am making a mistake but will be there to support me."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I knew that she would react that way, but I still wanted to tell her first." she replied.

"Monica knows and of course Edward." he said with a half smile. "Anyone else can be told by Sam, I could care less about anyone hearing it before then."

"Not even Carly?" she asked in disbelief.

"Not even Carly." he said thinking about how she had almost ruined this. "What about your friends at the hospital?"

"Robin will be happy for us, Patrick will just accept. As for the others, I only want to tell Epiphany."

"We should go and see what happened to Max. Milo is on his way to the station even as we speak." said Jason then realized he had to tell Diane.

"I will go to Diane." said Elizabeth. "You take care of Max."

The killer watched and waited, he had a list of seven victims, his grandmother had always said seven was a lucky number. Five down and two to go. One was going last, he wanted to savor her death. The other was just filler. Someone to kill to give him luck.

Taking out his list, he crossed off Ric Lansing and circled the sixth number on his list, wondering how hard this one would be.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Diane sat there, in shock as Elizabeth tried to comfort her. "Elizabeth, are you sure?"

"Yes, he was on some kind of special assignment for Sonny, that is all that Jason knows."

"I want to see his body." she said standing while holding the edge of her desk. "Will you please drive me to the Morgue."

Elizabeth called Jason and the two women arrived at the station as quickly as possible after he said Milo fell apart. Diane was giving the younger man emotional support, seeing the body seemed to pull her together. "Morgan, a word please."

Jason and Elizabeth followed Mac into his office. "Elizabeth, Ric Lansing was killed tonight in the house where he held Carly. Same room, his eyes removed and then approximately 20 snakes were placed in with him."

Elizabeth felt bad for Molly but knew that Ric should have been dead years ago. Sitting down, she asked if there were more messages.

"Just the usual remarks about sins and some more morality quotes. Alexis Davis is insisting that these murders are about you, since you are one of the people with connections no matter how tenuous with all the victims and your grandfather."

"Mac, surely you don't think that." she protested.

"No, he doesn't and neither do I." said Agent Raynor. "But I do think that this killer dug up your grandfather for a reason. Mac told me his theory about your brother being a twin and we are trying to find this Heather Webber."

"Good luck, she is as slippery as they come." said Elizabeth. "Mac did you get a chance to ask Monica and Bobbie about her?"

"No. They are coming down to the station later today. Elizabeth, did your grandparents have any other children other than your father and Tom?"

"Well, my dad has two half siblings, my Aunt Terry, she moved to New Zealand when I was in kindergarten, she didn't get along with her brother Rick, who was murdered a few years ago."

"Your grandmother has called me a few times to ask about your grandfather's body. I told her I would release it to you so that you all could rebury it." he told the young nurse.

"Thank you." she replied. "Mac, if I think of anything, I will call you. This man has me worried as well. Agent Raynor, the man you had in custody when you find him, would you please let me talk to him."

Not wanting to tell her that he was suspicious of the man as much as Mac was, he said "I will do my best, but there are reasons that it isn't such a good idea."

Elizabeth nodded then left the station with Jason while Diane and Milo went to call his father.

Jason and Elizabeth went to her house to grab some clothes and she wanted to visit with Epiphany and tell her about the wedding. Arriving Elizabeth saw that Nik was following Rebecca again. Going over, she drew off her friend and asked how Lulu was.

"She isn't doing too bad, she is doing something with Maxie Jones right now."

"Nik, if it is for Spinelli you might want to stop her, the FBI is threatening to arrest anyone found with him."

"I warned her, but she seems to think that Jason will protect them." he said with a sigh. "I have been trying to locate Luke, but he seems to be playing least in sight."

"Of course, he is. This is Luke we are talking about." said Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. "Nik, how are you doing?"

"Holding on, just holding on. I have no choice." he said bleakly. "When you get an chance, will you help me arrange for Lucky's funeral"

"That might not be such a good idea." she said before pulling him off to a discreet corner. "Nik, I guess you should hear it from me first, but Jason and I are getting married. We have talked about it before, but with this new danger, we realize that we are still in danger anyhow."

Nik counted to ten, knowing he had no right to say anything, but wanted to. Then he asked "Are you sure that you are not just reacting to Lucky's death, I know that the two of you were..."

"Nik." she gently touched his arm and said "Lucky lied to you, we were not getting back together. I only recently learned he was telling people this. I had no intention of getting emotionally involved with Lucky again."

"But you were letting him raise Jake." he said a little hard.

"I made a mistake, Nik, he was the past and I should have left him there. I am sorry if this is the wrong time to being doing this." she said upset for her friend.

"No, I appreciate your telling me the truth." he said before hugging her. "If you ever need me, you know that I will be there for you, don't you."

"Of course." she said with a sad smile well aware that they were slowly growing apart.

Jason looked up and saw the tears in her eyes when she rejoined him as he talked to Cody on the phone. "So that was what Sonny had you doing?"

"Yes, but the papers were fakes, we were looking into it. But Jason, Sonny was meeting with Max at the piers why would he have been at the penthouse?"

"No idea, but I want you to give me all of the notes as well. Or did Sonny destroy them?"

"Max had them. He said they were someplace safe when I asked him about them."

"Find them, we have to know what Sonny was doing." he said before hanging up. Turning to Elizabeth he pulled her back into the same corner she had just been with Nik. "What did Epiphany say?"

"She just said about dang time." she said with a laugh. "Nik was fine, but he is taking Lucky's death hard. Luke pulled a disappearing act. I saw his car outside his old blues club when I drove by the other day."

Carly separated Lulu from Maxie and told her she needed her help with something.

"Sure what do you need?"

"I want to throw someone a surprise wedding, can you help me?"

"Now, Carly don't you think that it might be a little tacky to be planning a wedding so soon after Sonny and Lucky's deaths."

"No, I actually think that this will make things a little less sad."

"Who are the happy couple?" she asked while watching as Johnny beckoned to her.

"I can't tell you yet." she said. "Meet me in my office after dealing with Zachara."

Going over, Lulu asked, "How are you dealing with Claudia's death?"

"I am dealing." was all he said. "Do you know why your father left four different mysterious messages on my phone in the last two days?"

"No, I thought he was attached to Ethan at the hip." she said with a sneer. "But maybe he woke up to the jerk's lies."

Johnny just nodded, not wanting to get in the middle of that mess. "Well, if you see him, let him know that I am going to Italy. I am arranging for Claudia to be buried next to her mother in Milan."

"Johnny, for your sake, I am sorry about her death." she said before walking away. Arriving at Carly's office, she sat down and asked her cousin if there was something wrong with her.

"Why do all the guys I like turn out to be jerks or not interested in me?" she asked thinking of the string of boyfriends she had had since returning to Port Charles.

Sam was walking out of the room where Alexis had placed her after dragging her back from the Metrocourt. "What happened that had you drinking at noon?"

"Nothing." she said realizing that she had overreacted. Elizabeth had just lost Lucky and was doing what she did best, running to the next man on her list. Jason had been without sex as far as she knew and the mother of his son would have most definitely have been willing.

In the end, he would return to her the next time there was danger. Elizabeth was not capable of living in Jason's world.

"You need to be careful, I think that this killer is taking out people connected to Elizabeth Webber." said Alexis worried about her daughter. "Ric and Lucky were married to her, Sonny and Claudia have connections to Jason that were a threat to her and her grandfather's body was dug up."

"What about Coleman, what was his connection? Alexis you are grasping at straws, there is no way that anyone would go to all this trouble for Elizabeth Webber." she said laughing derisively as she left. "I have to go and find Jason. I am sure that he is finished playing house with Elizabeth, now."

Alexis stood and watched, what would it take to make someone listen to her? She was certain that Elizabeth was connected to this somehow.

Mac sat with Monica and Bobbie while Agent Raynor went to get his files. They had hoped that the women would know if Heather Webber had another child. "Sir, a call for you from Africa."

"Scorpio." he said as Agent Raynor returned.

"Mac it's Sean Donnelly. Steven Webber did some digging. He might have something for you."

"Mac, I found out that my mother is dead. She has been since September '07.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, the authorities in Venezuela could only tell me that she showed up dead with her passport on her."

"I sent someone to look into it, Mac." said Sean. "You had a drug kingpin from there didn't you?"

"Lorenzo Alcazar, I will look into it." he said grimly. "Steven thank you and I am sorry about your mother."

Laughing darkly, Steven said "My mother sold me when I was a baby and only wanted to be around when she wanted money from either Jeff or myself. I am more relived than anything else. Also, I have no idea where she is but my biological grandmother, Alice is still alive. I had thought she was dead, but the police said she claimed my mother's body."

"Thanks, I will see if I can find her. Could you send me a DNA sample, so I can test this man's against yours and Elizabeth's?"

"Mac, my sister's won't help." he said sounding like he was not sure how to continue. "Is there anyone else in the office with you?"

"Agent Raynor and Monica Quartermaine as well as Bobbie Spencer."

They could all hear Steven hesitating then he said "Mac, I need you to assure me what I am about to say goes no further, at least not to Elizabeth until I get a chance to talk to my dad."

After getting their assurances he said "Elizabeth is adopted, I only learned it a couple of months ago. My father admitted it to me, he had a heart attack and wanted someone to know. I had to promise to never tell Elizabeth."

"Steven, why not? You know how your parents have treated her, this is something she should know." said a strident Bobbie Spencer.

"Because her mother is dead, she was killed when Elizabeth was two weeks old. Dad adopted her then. Mom wanted a boy, and was never happy about dad's decision. Also, with who Elizabeth's biological father being who he was, I got the why. Trust me, my sister doesn't need to deal with that."

"Steven is this anything that might be pertinent to this case. We had reason at first to think that this killer was targeting people who had hurt Elizabeth."

"No, her father is still alive and can't EVER know that he has a daughter but I think someone there would notice him if he showed up." said Steven wishing he had just kept his mouth shut.

"If she is in danger, you should let Jason know so that he can protect her." said Monica while Agent Raynor's mind raced about what he could do with that news.

Mac reminded the women of their promises and asked what they knew about that time period and if Heather had been gone for any length of time then.

"Only when she was locked up in the loony bin." said Bobbie. As they tried to think of anything that could help, Monica suggest he get the records from Gail Baldwin.

After they left, Raynor said "We are just spinning our wheels. Why are you so sure that this man is the serial killer?"

"I have seen him someplace before. I know it is just a feeling, but he is connected to this. What do you think of Max Giambetti murder?"

"I would have thought a simple mob hit gone wrong, but for the footsteps they tracked from the site. Why did this extra set head to the closet and then back to the body."

"I don't think Morgan has any answers yet, either. Without his computer geek, he is cut off from any electronic surveillance."

Sam returned to the tug boat and saw that Spinelli was looking into the latest death and running something else. "What do you know?"

"Someone erased Dr. Steven Hardy's files from GH and created a new file for him. I was able to track down the original, they only changed the blood types and a couple of times he was hospitalized. They also accessed every single file on the Webber family. Did you know that fair Elizabeth has the same blood type as the late Mr. Corinthos sir."

"No, but I doubt it has anything to do with the murders. Who else's were accessed and how did they do it?"

"They just went in through the main database at GH using the utility code. The murder victims files were accessed on the night of the murders and so were some old files for Roselawn." said Spinelli. "Do you want the names?"

Not getting anyplace else, she said "Who are they?"

"Heather Grant and Victor Collins." he said with a happy smile. "Did you know that Mr. Corinthos sirs, father was there about the same time?"

"Sonny's father was in a mental institution?" she asked.

"No, he worked there as a janitor." he said. Sam rushed off the boat, sure she had located some sort of clue. When she arrived at the man's apartment, he was drunk and barely standing.

"Mike, when you worked at Roselawn, do you remember two patients named Heather Grant or Victor Collins?"

"Victor wasn't a patient, he was a volunteer, as for the woman, no." he said easily lying. Heather Webber was a mistake in his past and he had no intention of telling anyone about his affair with a mental patient.

Elizabeth took her mail from Robin and said "Thank you, I forgot to get it when we were there earlier."

"No problem, what are friends for, especially nosy friends who want to find out what is going on." she said as she sat down. "First thing, what is this place?"

"A safe house that Jason owns, but I have a question of my own. Why is your cousin following me?"

Seeing the guilty expression, Elizabeth pressed her friend again.

"We were worried when you didn't want Jason's guards around. Aidan used to be WSB and my mom asked him to keep an eye on you and the boys. Two of his people are with your grams as well. Did Jason mention sending guards as well."

"Thank you." she said looking down feeling guilty about her attitude the other day. "Jason and I talked. We apologized and we are thinking about getting married."

"WHAT?" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you call me." and why didn't Monica give her the news.

"We were going to wait until this killer is caught. The Quartermaines were the only ones who knew, I told grams she wasn't happy but is going to accept that I am doing what I think is right."

"So, without details, I gather you two finally realized you were hurting each other for nothing." she said gently.

Elizabeth thought about Jason's words and asked Robin. "Robin, Jason says that he never felt good enough for me, that he has always felt like he was dragging me down by bringing me into his world. I just don't get why he feels that way."

Robin realized that the damage she had done years ago was responsible for part of this. Sighing she said. "Elizabeth, you are not a slut, you don't lie to be selfish, you are kind, caring and I get why Jason would feel like that. When we were involved, Jason had no idea what he was getting into, or if he did he didn't think he would be alive for long."

"But-"

"I will get to that. Jason knows that what he does is wrong, unlike Sonny he understands that now. He sees the damage his world has done, why do you think he tries to protect so many people, he GETS that what he does is why there so much danger. You, you know, the first time I saw the two of you talking, I saw the way he looked at you. Elizabeth, I HAVE NEVER seen Jason look at anyone like he looks at you, I mean even before the two of you slept together."

Elizabeth sighed and said "I finally got that part today. I am a little thick, it took ten years but I finally figured that part out. But Robin, I am just as human as the next person. I don't want to be on a pedestal."

"And Jason finally gets that. At least I hope he does." she said. "Liz, He will eventually get over that, but for now, you need to make sure he realizes that you don't look down on him like I made him feel I did."

Seeing her expression, Robin said sadly. "I was so upset and so messed up back then. I pushed Jason towards Carly by doing so many things wrong. But in the end, I gave Carly her tight grip on Jason by telling AJ. Not that I was wrong, but if it had been handled better in the beginning so many things would have been different. I was trying to hold onto Jason Quartermaine, not Jason Morgan."

"I never really knew him as Jason Quartermaine."

"He is still there, a part of him, but I looked down on Jason Morgan, made him feel like what he did was wrong, yet was close to Sonny even after breaking up with Jason because of his job. Looking back, I know that I let things get too far with Jason. I only really let Stone go a few years ago."

"I know that you loved Jason pretty deeply."

Smiling a bit, Robin said "I did love him, but looking back, I see that I was clinging for the wrong reason, like you with Lucky when he came back after being thought dead. Jason was still growing and we made big mistakes, hurting each other, but in the end, losing Michael hurt him worse than losing me. He lost someone he had sworn to protect forcing him to break a promise."

"I get that, sometimes I feel jealous of the way he seems to put Michael before Jake." she admitted not realizing the Jason had returned from dealing with Cody.

"Elizabeth, Jason has had to protect his feelings about Jake, now that the truth is out, I don't think you have to worry. I mean I do understand why you feel that way. My guess is that Carly did some of that damage, but I want you to talk to Jason about that, trust me, Jason loves his son deeply. Same with Cameron."

In fact Robin was sure of it. She had talked to Jason before helping Monica and knew that he had been holding his love back, terrified of losing those two boys as well as Elizabeth.

"I know that rationally, but sometimes, I get these irrational thoughts." she said with a laugh.

Robin hugged her and headed out planning on attending a PPD meeting that evening. While she had been doing so much better, she still kept up with them.

Jason waited until she had left and said "You have no nothing to be jealous about. I only wish that I had the time I have spent with Michael with our boys."

Elizabeth spun around shocked to see Jason standing there. "Where did you come from?"

"Kitchen door. Elizabeth, come here."

Walking over, she saw he was holding her hand as he took her over to the fireplace and lit it. Seeing the box in his hands, said "Jason, don't do that."

"Yes, we both need to do this. Let go of the past."

Jason tossed the box in the fireplace after removing his pictures of his family with Elizabeth. She took out the ones of Michael, insisting he keep them saying she had been acting foolish.

"You are not being foolish, Elizabeth. We both made each other feel that way. I loath the idea of any picture that exists with Lucky and the boys."

Elizabeth said with a small laugh. "Grams and I burnt them all the other night. She said she was sure that some day, Cameron might have questions, but that we could explain without them."

Jason wondering about giving Audrey Hardy a hug, he had been wanting to burn those photos for years, since Elizabeth had returned with Cameron from California. Taking her hand, he led her to the bedroom, saying we need to get some sleep, that floor wasn't very comfortable.

Sam was steaming when she pulled up to the safe house. Seeing two of Jason's guards outside, she called Spinelli and asked him to get them away.

Spinelli thought about it, and was considering not doing it, but knew that Jason would not be happy to learn that they could have prevented another victim from dying. Sam said she knew who the next victim was.

Seeing the guards moving towards the SUV parked outside, Sam slipped inside and saw that someone was burning something. Seeing it start to turn red, she realized it was Jason's box that he had kept hidden while she had lived in the penthouse.

Going over she got it out of the fire seeing that only the outer box was singed. Opening it, she saw pictures from various events with Carly in quite a few of them. Most were off people that had died. Seeing the one of Courtney, she grimaced as she tossed it back into the fire. Then stiffened when she realized that there was one of her in there from when she was pregnant along with her daughter's only photo.

Why would Jason be burning these, he had always treasured them. Seeing the pictures on the mantle, she picked them up and gritted her teeth as she went through the rather thick pile as the fire seemed to burn out from lack of material.

She saw the picture of Jake and Cameron and knew that Elizabeth had to have given him them. She sure as heck wouldn't want Jason to forget the only thing tying them together. Finding the sonogram, she smirked then saw it was one for Jake.

Then opening a faded one expecting to find one for Michael, she saw it was unnamed but looking at the date figured out it was for about five years before. Wondering if it was for Morgan or Molly, she soon saw the picture with it. A pregnant Elizabeth. Flipping it she saw it said Elizabeth and unborn son.

When she kept looking she saw pictures of a young Elizabeth, dressed up for some sort of costume party in a strapless dress and tiara and a few others, including one where she was playing pool in Jason's apartment. "If you are interested, that was from when I lived there. Now why are you here Sam?"

Turning she saw Elizabeth standing there holding a water bottle as she turned on the light switch. "I am looking for Jason, we have work to do."

"Sam, Jason could care less about your so-called work. He just left, a call from Cody, by the way the two guards outside called the police. What will it take for you to get the message, you are not supposed to be around me."

With a nasty chuckle, Sam said "You can't stand the competition. You know that Jason will be coming back to me in the end, that is why you are burning his box."

"Jason did that, but I will give you a boon, Sam. I did ask him too, we are moving forward. We have dealt with the past, and are working towards a future with our sons. Cameron and Jake are coming home in a few days, we are going to be looking for a new home, without any bad memories. You should move on, Sam. Find someone that can be your adrenaline junkie pal."

"You know that Jason will there when I call him. How long until I get him back into bed do you think. I mean I got Lucky into bed and Jason has already had me, he knows how good I am."

"Sam, if he didn't sleep with you during the last eight months, he isn't going to do so now. As for Lucky, he slept with my sister and with Maxie, he had no self control. He was like Luke that way. You, said it by the way, he already had you and Jason tend not to go back for seconds, why don't you ask Carly if you don't believe me."

Sam was getting ready to slap her when Harper entered and handcuffed her. "Elizabeth are you okay?"

"Yes, Jason had just left when I went to get a water and saw her in my living room."

When Elizabeth saw that the fire was out, she re-lit it and tossed the pictures back into the flames and then went to her purse and took out the letter she had written to Lucky and tossed it in as well. "I won't be needing that."

Jason looked at the file and knew that he had to deal with Luke Spencer, now. Turning to Cody he said get some of the men and meet me at the blues club on sixth street as soon as possible."

Tightening his grip on the photos, Jason felt sick. So Spencer had found out about this and had been blackmailing Sonny with it? He had thought the two of them were friends, but he was well aware that a Spencer would do anything for money. Shaking his head at Sonny's pride in not coming to him with this, he may have cost them everything if he had still been alive.

Stopping to lean against the wall near Kate Howard's place, he wondering if he should even bother stopping Luke, let him have everything. He didn't need the money and he knew that the guards would protect his family since he was sure that most of them would not want to work for Luke Spencer.

Hearing a beep on his phone, he listened to the computerized voice telling him he had fifteen messages. The first four were from Carly, who was excited about something. She was demanding he come over to the Metrocourt the next day.

Then one from Johnny Zachara telling him about a call from Luke Spencer.

"I turned the offer down, but thought I owed it to you to let you know what he was up to. How did he get control of your business? Anyhow, I am taking Claudia's body to bury it next to her mothers.

I left some information for you at that studio I have seen you at a few times recently. My sister had a connection to Lorenzo Alcazar that I was unaware of. Its because of this your sister was murdered along with Georgie Jones. Good bye."

The three messages from Spinelli had Jason grimacing then he called Mac and told him where to locate the kid. He was not going to break his deal with Mac. For once Sam and Spinelli can deal with their own consequences. He had told the geek on the phone to stay with the FBI.

Hearing Sam's calls, he knew he had to reign in Alexis Davis, she had to stop trying to pin this on Elizabeth. Her remarks made him want to point out that she had Cassidine blood flowing through her veins and she shouldn't be throwing stones.

Finally a call from Bobbie Spencer intrigued him. "Jason, I made a promise not to tell Elizabeth something, but never mentioned not telling you. IT is VITAL I talk to you as soon as possible."

After a call from Elizabeth telling him that Sam had shown up and was arrested, a similar one from Monica had him even more curious as to what was going on, but the next call had him rushing to the police station and into chaos.

"Jason, she is in my office for now." said Mac who was looking harassed as Monica and Bobbie entered as holding old files and looking triumphant while Alexis was haranguing Mac over Sam's arrest.

That mess was added to by Agent Raynor's men leading in Spinelli.

Arriving in the commissioner's office he saw a very pale Elizabeth holding a letter tightly in her grip. "Elizabeth, what is it?"

"I got a letter from the killer." she said still shuddering.

When the Mayor arrived, Mac gave up any possibility of control as the pompous windbag agreed with Alexis that they had a right to know what was going on in their town. Hearing the man order Harper to bring up Sam after Alexis' request had Monica and a now entering Diane protesting. "There is a restraining order keeping that woman away from my client. If it is isn't honored, I will make sure that I take this to a judge."

"Elizabeth Webber will be quite safe in the middle of the police station and if she has any knowledge of this crime, Alexis of all people has a right to know."

Elizabeth entered holding onto Jason's arm trying to calm him down, he had heard the Mayors disparaging side remarks to Alexis and wanted to make the man apologize but Elizabeth said let me deal with it.

"So what has all of you astir." asked Agent Raynor after offering Elizabeth a seat.

Monica and Bobbie insisted on going first.

"Tell us." said Alexis.

"Heather Webber was in Roselawn years ago as a patient of Gail Baldwin. While talking to her, she mentioned that another doctor took over. We got a hold of those files. Heather was pregnant while there. No one knows who the father was."

Taking the file, Mac asked about the call.

"Jeff is heading to his office to call me back. Turns out he had been approached by Heather several years ago, she claimed to have given birth to twins. But medical tests proved the second boy was a year younger than Steven."

"So this killer, or possible killer is Elizabeth's brother?" asked Sam. "And you claim I am dangerous, must me something in the blood. Jason you might want to check out Jake, who knows what kind of mental illness he could have."

"Sam, shut up." said Monica. Her phone rang while Sam continued to mutter to her mother and Spinelli about how she should have seen Elizabeth was involved with this mess.

"Jeff, what did you find?"

"Nothing, which is strange. Steven told me that Alice was still alive, if she had this boy, you have a major problem. Alice makes Heather look sane."

Hearing her dad's voice, Elizabeth felt upset, until she heard Monica turn off the speaker phone and then hand it to Elizabeth. "Dad?" she asked.

Listening to his words, they all saw Elizabeth tear up and then grab Jason's hand. "Thanks dad, I will."

Hanging up, she told Monica thank you, then said "Why did he send me an e-mail and tell me to read it with you?"

"I will explain later." she said sadly.

"Well, so this guy is your brother?" once again someone asked.

Agent Raynor read the letter and asked about the envelope.

"As soon as I realized what it was, I called in Aidan Devane, he has been protecting me for Anna and Robin. He was sending it to their lab." she said. "He copied the letter, that is what that is."

"May I read it out loud?" he asked. Raynor found himself a little protective of the petite brunette, he had done some research and knew that if his hunch turned out, her life was going to be turned upside down.

Seeing Elizabeth nod, Spinelli wondered why the man was so nice to Elizabeth. "Dear Elizabeth, My name is Peter Taylor.

When I was born, I was sold by our father and I never was brought back to my true family. The man you know as Steven Lars is not your brother. My grandmother and my mother hid me to protect me from him."

Sam was crowing inside, Elizabeth was related to this nut job who had killed all these people. "Some blood lines should not be allowed to continue."

Elizabeth just kept letting her dig her own grave, while Bobbie watched her like she was an interesting exhibit at a freak show as Monica seemed to be laughing inside.

Raynor read on as the man explained that he had found out his heritage several years ago and came to town to see her. "I got a job at the hospital while Steven worked there and saw that he had a superficial resemblance to me. But I know that I am your true brother. While there I was caught during that flu epidemic-"

Mac started, "That is why he looked familiar, I saw him at the hospital. He was working as an orderly in the maternity ward. I was wondering why he seemed so happy in the middle of the crisis."

Raynor continued as he got to the bottom, he said. "I'm sorry Elizabeth, but your ex-husband has to die. The man who owns Jake's was an accident, a happy one, but an accident. I was looking for proof of something. He refused to give it to me so that I could make Sonny give me my due."

"Sonny promised me a fortune if I made sure that Alexis Davis died during the flu epidemic, he wanted his daughter."

There was no sound in the room as Alexis stared at the letter like it had come alive.

"I took his money and knew that I could not be responsible for her death. I fled town afterwords, but promised to make him pay."

Alexis sat down on the desk, then asked to read the letter.

Raynor continued on and explained that Lucky wasn't good enough for her and that Luke Spencer was responsible for his mother's death. He had helped get her locked up in that horrible place. "She was visiting her doctor when a man entered and asked if she was a nurse. Mom was at one time so she said yes. He grabbed her and took her to Central America where she died. I vowed to make all those involved pay for hurting my family."

Sam snarked at Elizabeth again about her supposed blood lines, not realizing that the woman wasn't listening. Monica was though and when Sam said that it was too bad she wasn't the mother of Jason's son, replied "Sam, you are making a really big fool of yourself and once again proving what an idiot your are. Heather Grant Webber was married to Elizabeth's dad, she isn't any relation to Elizabeth."

Seeing her shut up, Monica looked at Jason and said with a smile "Thank god, Elizabeth is Jake's mom, I mean besides the fact that Jason doesn't want you as the mother of his kids, there is the Cassadine factor or did you forget that your biological family is a group of megalomaniacal nut jobs who married one another to keep the money and power in one family. Adding that to Heather's genes would have been a big mistake."

"Most Maternal one, why would you make that mistake? Jason and Sam's child would not..."

"Spinelli." said Elizabeth with a laugh after looking at Jason, "Heather's cousin was Jason's biological mother Susan Moore."

Sam sat down and shut up when she realized that she had been running her mouth about Jason's family. Not that he cared about family.

Mac looked at Monica and said "Susan Moore, Jason your mother owned a house here in town, who owns it now?"

Monica stopped to think, then said "Jason does, well he should. Alan and I kept it for him."

Jason looked at the address and said to Mac "I don't know this address."

Raynor sent agents over and they called back as soon as they arrived. "Sir, we found Alice Grant, she is dead. From the looks of it, natural causes and it was several days ago from the stench."

"Mac." called out Harper. "There is a call for you."

At the same time Jason's phone rang, and Cody explained what was going on. "Where?" said Mac and Jason at the same time.

Looking up their eyes met and Mac said "Haunted Star?"

"Haunted Star." he confirmed grimly.

"My men were called to the blues club."

Raynor and his men went to the Haunted Star. Jason conferred with Diane who told him to tell Mac as Alexis realized that Luke had been a victim of the killer.

The killer saw the police and went to his bolt hole. Arriving he saw that Spinelli had been taken, shame that, he had been looking forward to making him watch as he killed Sam McCall. Letting him martyr the woman he esteemed so much.

He was watching the reporter standing in front of the police station and saw Sam McCall slipping out along with Spinelli. Thank god for her stupidity, now it would be so much easier to take her out. He even had the perfect spot to grab her and then later he was going to enjoy killing her.

Because if anyone deserved to die, it was Sam McCall. She was the reason that Diego killed his mother, so she would pay last, and have the most pain.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Spinelli saw that he had a call on his phone from Jason. After getting Sam's attention he answered as she pulled off the road smirking. She knew that eventually Jason would call them for help.

The computer geek pulled up the files and told Jason about Heather Webber's time in Roselawn and that Mike had been there but didn't know her. Jason said to keep looking since it was apparent that he wasn't going to stay with the FBI.

Hurt, Spinelli hung up and said to Sam "I thought you said he was fine with my being out here helping with this."

"He is, but you know how Jason protects those he loves. Look at how many times he has pushed me away." she said while heading toward Kelly's. She knew that Jason would show up to question Mike.

Spinelli thought about it and said "True, he does push away those he loves. I am glad he can finally claim his family. I am sure that now that he and Fair Elizabeth are happy that she will lift this most unjust order against you."

Wanting to laugh, Sam said "Elizabeth ran before and she will do so again. I am hoping that Jason gets to stay in his son's life this time. She has no right keeping him from m-Jason."

Jason was talking to Cody when Milo entered the office. "I got the papers from Spencer's hiding place. Thank god for Lulu's talking about it when we went out a few years ago."

"I thought I told you to take time off."

"Not until this is over. Jason, our contact at the station needs to see you. I told him you would meet at your usual spot."

Leaving early, Jason entered Elizabeth's still half trashed studio. He had slipped in here on the infrequent times he had been able to escape. At first to see the damage, wanting to remind himself daily of why he had to stay away. But it had hurt too bad to see her place of refuge look like that, so he had been cleaning it up and having the paintings repaired.

Finding what Johnny had left, Jason saw that it filled in some blank spots. Lorenzo had been behind getting a doctor for Diego, but Heather had been mistaken for a nurse while visiting her own doctor.

Reading how Diego had killed Heather, Jason knew that was what had started this mess. When he saw that Claudia had been in South America at that time, he stopped to try and figure out why?

But the part that got his attention was reading how Claudia had found out about his past with Elizabeth. He had assumed that it had been Ric, instead it had been Alcazar. Jason realized that Carly had ran her mouth all those years ago while with the Latin drug runner and he must have read between her version and someone found the truth.

One more thing to add to the list, he thought to himself as he went to his meeting. "What is it?"

"The bullet that killed Max, came from the same gun that killed Andre Karpov."

Stunned, he asked if the man was sure all the while wondering why Sonny had shot his own guard.

"Yes, I ran the tests myself. One more thing, we found a residue on Lucky Spencer, that doesn't make sense. Lip gloss, strawberry pink pearls to be exact. On his abdomen. My daughter wears that stuff. She is fourteen." he said disgusted. "No self respecting adult would use it."

Jason thought on it, then said "Thank you." before handing over payment and a request to see the crime photos of all the murders.

Jason could not help recalling that he had seen an adult woman wearing that lip gloss, he had seen her putting it on at his penthouse. Tracking down Maxie, he pulled her into a private room and said "Sit down."

"Enough of the caveman routine, jeez." said Maxie.

"What were you doing with Spencer the day he died."

"I wasn't anywhere near Lucky, why would you think that." she asked.

"Maxie, if I have to tear your world apart to find the truth, I will. Now I suggest you tell me the truth."

Maxie paled, then said "I needed his help, when he refused, saying he wanted to get back with Liz I decided to make sure that I had a way to make him regret it."

"So now besides lying to Elizabeth about Sam's and my non-relationship, you decided that you would hurt her if she really was getting back with Lucky?" he said with disgust.

"She always has this attitude, like she is better than me." said the blond huffing. "You should hear the things she has said to Sam."

"Maxie, Elizabeth IS better than you. As for Sam, you are taking a known con artists word. A woman who will use anyone to get what she wants. She watched Elizabeth's son get kidnapped and then hired two men to threaten her and the boys in the park."

"Really, if she did that why would you be hanging around her, after all I know how long it took for you to forgive Robin? So stop telling me tales."

Jason got in close and said "Little girl, stop playing games. I was around Sam to keep me from walking into Elizabeth's house and begging her for a chance at a life together. That is the only reason. She kept coming around and I let her to keep myself away from the woman I love."

"I want a safe life with my family, I want peace and quiet and you to stop invading my home like you live there. I want Spinelli to wake up and get a clue that you are not your sister, that you don't have an ounce of kindness in your body unless it allows you to get what you want."

Maxie was trying to back away, scared by what she saw in Jason's eyes. "If you EVER lie to Elizabeth again, I will make your life a living hell. I have put up with a lot from you, out of respect for your late sister's death. But no more, now get out of here before I decide to make sure that you don't come near Elizabeth permanently."

Scurrying out the door, Maxie was whimpering when she went up to her office and saw Carly talking to Kate civilly. Getting control of herself, she saw that Kate was on the phone and then conferring with Carly.

After hanging up, she said to the annoying blond, "It will arrive this evening. I think you are making a mistake, but I do thank you for what you said to Olivia and I earlier about Sonny."

Carly walked out and seeing Maxie asked what the heck happened to you, your eye makeup looks like a raccoon did it.

"Nothing." she insisted before pulling out a mirror. Fixing things she went back to work ignoring her ringing cell phone and ordered the shoes that Kate came out and requested she find.

Spinelli hung up then entered Kelly's. Sam was sitting off to the side waiting for Mike. Grabbing a coffee for his friend and an orange soda, he sat down as they waited.

Seeing the Valkerie's mother off to the side talking to Stone Cold's, Spinelli left the coffee and came around from the outside like it said to in his private investigator guidebook.

"So who do you think are her parents?"

"From the time, I would guess Annie, but I thought she was still alive." said Bobbie.

"I went through a list of names, the only one I can't find an answer for is that nurse that was friends with Amy Vining, remember her?"

"No, she is still alive. Lives in Australia. Monica, what about... no, never mind." she said feeling embarrassed there was no way that anyone would have missed that one.

"What?"

"Well, according to that file, Jeff had her birthday change to reflect that day he legally adopted her. We need to check something."

"What are you going on about?"

"Something I figured out a while ago, accidentally. Come with me, if I am right we are about to set up a heck of a fire storm."

Mac took a shower, then called Felicia. Telling her what had happened allowed him to wrap his mind around what he had seen earlier that day. "This Ethan said that Luke had been slowly plotting to take over Port Charles."

"Are you sure that Jason didn't do this and use the killer as cover?"

"Yes, I don't think that Morgan would have been too broken up to lose control of the Port Charles crime organization." he admitted. "This man broke into Luke's place and trashed it before coming back to leave the messages. Sam McCall escaped again, I just hope she isn't with Maxie when she gets caught."

"I remember her, I don't like that Maxie has been hanging around that woman. Her rap sheet is full of using her body to get what she wants."

"I know. The Haunted Star, was a mess. I learned a few things, things I wish I hadn't." he said soberly.

"How did you find the body?"

"He was drowned in a tub of cheap liquor. With the cuts all over the body, it had to have been an agonizing way to die. I looked into the background of Heather Webber. I can't find much on her mother and nothing on this Peter."

Jason slipped into the betting parlor and said to Mike, we need to talk.

Once outside, he said "Tell me about Heather and don't deny it. I talked to a woman who was a nurse there at the time she was a patient and she recalled two men close to the woman, Victor Collins who assures me that he couldn't father children at that point and you."

Sitting down heavily, he said "She seduced me. I had just left Sonny's mother, and was hiding out from my creditors. She wanted to sleep with me, I just saw the pretty blond hair and the nice body. When I was caught, I was fired. That is all there is to it."

"Well congratulations you fathered her son. The same son who killed Sonny. He was working at GH during the crisis and Sonny wanted him to kill Alexis so that he could get custody of Kristina. I have no idea the rest of it."

Walking away, Jason looked back and said "Mike, I would suggest heading out of town. When you being this man's father comes out, my guess is that at least Carly is going to blame you."

Monica went to look up the files as Bobbie rushed off to find whatever it was that had her so excited. They were meeting at the mansion, later.

Seeing Carly she ducked into an empty office, the woman had been calling all day, no doubt with another plan to try and fix her relationship with Jason. She didn't seem to get that it wasn't going to work this time. Elizabeth wasn't Courtney or Sam, she was not going to just suddenly accept Carly if Carly was nice to her.

Epiphany wondered why Jason was asking so many questions about her past working at Roselawn. It had been her first nursing assignment and she had quickly applied for another job. She had recalled the patient he had been interested in, Heather Webber had been trying to dose another person with PCP and had taken it herself instead.

She had been a problem patient while there. Then the rumors she had heard when she joined General Hospital had filled all in all her questions about the less than sane blond.

Seeing Monica rushing towards her, she asked "Dr. Quartermaine is there something I can do for you?"

"Just need to locate some files, but with the transfer they seemed to have ended up in the wrong area. Epiphany, have you seen Patrick Drake today?"

"Robin and he are downstairs in the daycare with Emma." she assured the woman before going home.

Finding Patrick, Monica drew him off and asked her questions then swore him to secrecy as she explained what they thought. Seeing the slight smirk, she asked "What?"

"Oh, just imaging how some people are going to take that news."

Monica smiled back and said "I think that between Alexis and Sam, they would both have their panties in a twist. It would explain a few things that I recall from about eight years ago as well."

"Well, if you decide to do this publicly, please be sure to invite us. I wouldn't miss it for the world and I know that Robin would love it as well."

Sam gave up on finding out anything when she heard the waitress telling a customer that Mike had the day off. Sending Spinelli back to the boat, she went to slip onto Spoon Island to find out what her mother had learned.

Elizabeth got off the boat and crossed the courtyard with her guards, needing to see Nik. Seeing her friend entering with his son, she smiled at him and said "Emily would have loved to see the two of you coming back from riding like that."

Turning around, Nik smiled at Elizabeth and seeing the guards with her was relieved that Jason was at least protecting her now. "We are just about to have tea."

"Make it some juice and I am in." she said while walking and listening as Spencer told her all about his horse ride. When the youngster had finished his tea and ran off, Nik asked what was up?

Sam gritted her teeth when she saw that Elizabeth was having an afternoon snack with Nik. The two of them looked cozy she thought. Seeing her mother standing outside the door listening in as well, she wondered what was causing the strange look on Alexis' face

"You do know about Luke right?" Elizabeth asked soberly. Seeing his nod and then his explanation that he had also heard about Steven's possible brother she took a deep breath and said "Do you blame me for Lucky's death?"

"No, god Elizabeth, you are no more responsible for this mad man than I am for Helena. Deep down even Alexis knows that, she is just acting out because of Sam and her fear about losing her. Sam plays her rather well. I have seen it myself."

"AT one time, I looked up to Alexis. Thought she was wonderful attorney who saw through the bull crap, now I wonder. She has become the biggest hypocrite. I mean Sam came to me and said my losing Jake was like her daughter dying and was gloating about his being dead. And that is only one of the things she has done, and Alexis knows about these things. Yet she acts like Sam has some sort of moral high ground."

Sam smirked, thinking well of course she did. Elizabeth and slept with her boyfriend and gotten pregnant, yet seemed to think she deserved a free pass for it.

"Why didn't you ever tell anyone?" asked Nik but understanding the more he thought about it.

"I felt sorry for her, I mean, she lost Jason."

"Elizabeth, while I think Jason did love her at one point, I am almost certain it was like you felt about Ric or Lucky. I spent last night thinking of some things about the past and what had happened between all of us. All of our mistakes Emily's, Lucky's, yours, and mine. You know what I came up with?"

Seeing her confusion, Nik said sadly. "You tend to be a people pleaser and we made you feel like you had to please us to keep our friendship. Some friendship, huh. We forced you to a certain extent to take Lucky back, made you feel bad about feelings for Jason, yet look at us. I SLEPT with Courtney while Emily was dealing with being raped while trying to save me from my grandmother."

"Courtney, the woman who lied to so many and moved from man to man. The woman who used being addicted to drugs as an excuse to hit you with a car. Emily got involved with Sonny yet protested your involvement with her own brother until a few months before her death. She was doing so because she believed that without Lucky and you, there would be no me and her. I won't even go into Lucky's mistakes, they are too plentiful.

"Nik, don't do this." she said reaching out to take his hand.

"Elizabeth, I am trying to say I am sorry. And that I finally figured out that we all were responsible for screwing up Jason and your lives. The two of you would have been together years ago, without all of our baggage."

"You don't know that, Nik."

"Yes, I do. Why do you think I have hated Morgan so long. Some part of me has always known that he walked away from you because he loved you. Truly deeply loved you, I on the other hand, get a crush and have to have you bail me out when Helena tries to kill me and you. You, Elizabeth Webber are the strongest woman, I know. You always have been."

"Nik." she said with tears glistening in her eyes. "I am not strong, I mean, I ..."

"Elizabeth you stood up to a woman who kills without hesitation, you drank poison for me, how can you not realize that being brave has nothing to do with rushing into the fray without thought. Liz, it's about knowing the danger and yet going in anyway to protect those you love. That is you, to a tee. Don't EVER let anyone convince you otherwise."

Wondering at the tone, she asked about why it was coming up now.

"Emily, I keep seeing her in my dreams, not like before. Just there, telling me to find out who Nik is, to be a father to Spencer. To stop chasing her, that she is dead. Poor Rebecca Shaw. I was practically stalking her. I have come to accept the hard facts, Emily is dead, Lucky is dead. You are all I have left. The woman we have all used in our own way over the years, the one person who has always been there. We both have to move forward, you with finally accepting that Jason would do ANY for you..."

"And you Nik?" she asked concerned for her friend.

"I have to let go of my dreams, find new ones. Hopefully help Alexis with the girls and move on without Emily. In any form."

Sam split, some part of that bothered her, not the Jason part, she knew that Nik was seeing things the way he wanted to see them. But what Nik had said about helping Alexis. She was well aware that he didn't give her an inch and she did not want him in her mothers life.

Alexis was led by her emotions and Sam had no intention of losing the bolt hole her mother provided. Lainey Winters was the best person qualified to help the girls, not that they would need much help, for god's sake, it wasn't like either Ric or Sonny were very good fathers. Maybe she could ask Jason to help, to be there for Kristina in Sonny's stead like he would be for Michael.

Alexis listened to the two old friends talking and then went to her suite of rooms. Sam had claimed to have told her all but never mentioned that visit to Elizabeth, no wonder the young woman hated her daughter. Thinking on Nik's remarks, she thought back to before Kristina's death and how close Jason and Liz seemed.

Walking down stairs, she saw Elizabeth leaving and Nik taking out an old photo album. Hearing his sigh, she came into the room and asked. "How are you doing?"

Without turning, he said "I have been better. Alexis you need to let go of this vendetta on behalf of Sam."

Thinking on what she had heard, Alexis knew that the best thing she could do for her daughter was help her move on. The DA knew it was time her daughter learned about the past, from someone on her side. Someone who could make her face that fact that Jason wasn't coming back ever.

Sam was just arriving at where she had stashed one of the warehouses boats when she saw the call from her mother. Answering she pretended like she had just arrived.

"I will be right up. Maybe we can have some tea in the garden?"

"How about just a talk instead." said Alexis. Sam knew that her mother must be upset at what Elizabeth had said about her and wanted to vent. She was all for doing that, it was what kept Maxie on her side of things. Girly bitch sessions.

Elizabeth walked into the house and saw that Jason looked grim. "What is it?"

"Monica and Bobbie need to see me tonight, but they say you can't be there."

Feeling hurt, Elizabeth said "You should probably meet with them, maybe they are worried about how I will take whatever it is that they want to say."

"I was hoping to spend some time alone with you." he admitted while walking over to pull her into his arms. "We have a lot to talk about."

"Yes, we do." she said thinking about all that she had learned about herself in the last few days. "But for now, let's deal with getting this killer off the streets. I will stay with the guards and maybe sit outside on the porch and drink sweet tea with Robin while we watch our gay neighbors again."

Seeing his look, Elizabeth explained about the two men living across the street and the speculation that was rampant in the neighborhood about them. "Maybe they are just roommates." he said trying not to smile.

"No, trust me, we have never seen a woman over there. They don't seem to pay any attention to the red head down the street who jogs by without a bra and in tight workout clothes. So they are either not into women, or blind. Trust me every other male in the area watches waiting to see when she is going to fall out of those clothes."

Jason found himself steeping into when he replied. "They better know better than to be distrac..."

Elizabeth looked up with narrowed eyes and said "Do you know something that I might need to know about my neighbors."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jason felt himself flushing as Elizabeth came closer. "I have got to." he said and left so quickly he never saw Elizabeth smile or her shaking her head.

Hitting speed dial two, she asked "Are you doing anything?"

Hearing an answer that pleased her, Elizabeth said "Get over here, I have something to tell you."

Robin entered the cottage less than two minutes later with Emma and said "What is going on?"

"No, this requires lots of tea and my porch swing." She said with a wiggling of her eyebrows. Once they were settled with Emma in Jake's old bouncer, Elizabeth said "They aren't gay."

"NO?" asked Robin. "Wait did he hit on you? I told you so, I told you he liked you."

"Robin, he didn't hit on me, Jason would probably have him working warehouse duty if he did."

Feeling a bit disappointed, Robin said "They work for Jason?"

"Who works for Jason?" asked Nadine as she walked up the sidewalk with Rebecca.

"The two not so gay hotties across the street, turns out they are there to protect Elizabeth." said a flat toned Robin. "It's kind of a let down."

"So, I mean the speculation was fun, but time to find something else to wonder about." said Nadine. "Like what the heck got into Carly Jacks and why did she have a confrontation with Epiphany Johnson."

"It's Carly so who know." said Robin. Rebecca just asked for the back story and got it in spades.

"So let me get this straight, she came to town to ruin her mother's life. Slept with her stepfather, and AJ. Lied all around to everyone about everything, yet has the nerve to act all high and mighty. I knew she was trailer trash made good."

The foursome laughed at the comments, but Elizabeth said speculatively. "You all know about the lawsuit, right?"

After a chorus of agreements, she said "She had the nerve to try and get me to marry Jason so that he would get what he wanted. Get this, she told Jason that she would do anything to make me get back together with him."

"But you are marrying him, I mean that is the scuttlebutt around the hospital." said Nadine.

"Yes, but it HAS NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING to do with her." she said laughing.

"She is up to something, I saw her when I talked to Nik today." said Nadine as the others looked at the blond. "Yes, we talked. Cleared the air so to speak. Anyhow, she has some sort of event planned for the big ballroom this weekend, you should have seen her with all sorts of tradesmen."

"What is she up to, I mean I am glad she is occupied, maybe she will keep her nose out of Jason and my business."

"This is Carly, she can multitask. Run Jason's life, plan a gaudy over the top party, and still find the time to chase after whatever man is in her life at the same time and you know she is also out there plotting to make someone's life miserable at the same time. It is the one thing I envy her for, her ability to do all that without breaking a sweat." replied Robin from her seat next to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked at Robin in horror, "Great, so I can expect a Carly plan any day now."

"Hey please pass the iced tea." said Nadine as she reached over for a glass. The hottie running down the street wearing the sweaty clothes was enough to heat her up. "Yum."

Rebecca turned and drooled as well. They were all so busy watching Aidan running that they never saw the other women arriving. "So are we invited to this ... damn." said Kelly Lee pirouetting to watch Aidan.

"Ladies, would you all like drool bibs? Shame on your Robin, that is your cousin." said an entering Anna. "Now will someone fill me in on what is going on?"

Elizabeth only heard the word drool bib and handed Emma's to Robin. "Here."

Anna saw the water hose and picking up her granddaughter, turned it to it's lowest setting of mist and sprayed them.

"Hey, stop that." said Elizabeth as she came to after mentally comparing Aidan's pecs to Jason. The Brit came up second, in her mind.

"I guess that means you are not back with Morgan yet?"

"He is too young, plus Carly for a mother-in-law!" said Rebecca as the others smirked.

"You know who I mean." she said before turning to Emma and saying "Lets leave them and go and find intelligent conversation."

"Then don't go to my house, Patrick and Matt are watching Sunday's road race from Monte Carlo."

Anna sat down and asked Elizabeth if she was dealing better with things.

"Yes, as to your earlier question. Jason and I are doing better. It does have it's moments, though. We have a stalker in Sam, a serial killer and then there is Carly."

"Mrs. Jacks, you can leave to me." she said with a slight smile. Jackson Montgomery had been doing research for the case against the blond, she had enjoyed his insight on her as well as Diane's.

Jason looked at Monica and said "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I never would have pieced it together without Bobbie's help though."

"Bobbie, how did you know?"

"A few things stuck out over the years. First was Sam doesn't look like Alexis, nor does she remind me of any of the Cassadines. That could have been because of her father's genes but there should have been some resemblance to Alexis. But a few years ago, back when Alexis was working for Sonny, one of your guards, the Irish one, made a remark after watching Elizabeth and Alexis at the diner of how much they are alike."

"Same delicate skin tone, same overall bone structure." said Jason when thinking on it.

"Yes, but then do you recall that I was once married to Stefan?" seeing his nod, she continued. "Stefan once remarked that Elizabeth reminded him of one of his ancestors, that there was a resemblance. When Sonny was shot, years ago, Elizabeth donated blood to help him. The close match caused the hospital to run a DNA test. Then the results of Elizabeth's disappeared."

"What do you mean disappeared?"

"Just that, there one day gone the next. Stefan saw them and then they were gone. But I know that he had a DNA Test run about the same time. Said it was about Nik, but he never had Nik's done."

"You think that he knew? But why not tell Nik or Alexis?"

"Honestly, my guess is to protect her from the Cassadine feud. I checked, Sam's blood matches Nik's but no DNA tests were run."

"Then how do you know that they both aren't-"

"We found the tests for Kristina's and the one for Sam's kid. As well as the DNA test on Spencer. Compared them. Kristina's and the baby's matched on Sonny's side, but not on the Cassadine side. So Sam isn't her daughter. I am having them try and locate Elizabeth's DNA test that she mentioned during your trial but they think they lost it during the fire."

"Uh, no, they didn't. I had Spinelli erase it to protect Jake." he admitted. "What about Cameron's?"

"It's impossible to access after Ric tried to alter it years ago. Your fat-Alan had the records put on a file and hid them to keep him from trying anything like that again."

"Okay, so what now?"

"You have to tell, we can't because of our promise to Steven."

"Then how are you telling me?"

"We only promised to never tell Elizabeth, nothing was said about you. Besides, I want to kick Jeff Webber's rear. He helped create this mess." said Bobbie.

Epiphany supervised the running of the tests and called Monica. "You are right they are a match."

Hanging up the phone, she called Alexis and asked the woman to come over that it was hospital legal business. "We had a screw up in a lab. A DNA test that should have been run a few years ago, was screwed up."

Hanging up the phone Monica looked at Bobbie and Jason and said with an evil look, "So who wants to tell the DA that she has been protecting the woman who has been endangering her daughter and her grandchildren. One more thing, we now know who Elizabeth's father is and let me just tell you, it's a dozy."

Sam was trying to argue with Alexis when the phone rang. So much for this being a bonding moment about how much they both disliked Elizabeth Webber.

"Sam, I have known Elizabeth for years. Something that in my blind willingness to protect you, I had forgotten. Face facts, you are not the innocent here. Yes Jason and Elizabeth slept together for the first time that night, but frankly that was something that had been coming for years."

"He only used her, but she just had to get..."

"Sam." Alexis said with pity in her eyes, "No, he didn't. I was his attorney for years, I know Jason. I knew for years about how he felt about Elizabeth. If she had just been a body, he would have gone to Jake's and picked up a bar bunny."

"I know him better than you ever will." she raged at her mother.

"In a way, you do, but Sam you see things your way. There are things even now you don't know. Things about their past. Jason wasn't staying away from Elizabeth for you, he wasn't choosing you over her. He was doing what he thought was right, for Elizabeth, for his son, for Cam."

"He still loves me, why else would he help me so much."

"Because he is Jason, that is what he does, Sam. You need to accept this, it is time to move on. Maybe you should consider moving, finding someplace else to live."

"I am staying right here, so that when he realizes the mistake he is making or she runs again, I will be there. I will be there for the moment my Jason returns."

Alexis felt sad, but knew that she had to do it. "Sam, the Jason you claim belongs to you, is the result of losing her. Now that they are back, he..."

"I had him, he was mine long before they got together, he will be mine again."

"Sam, Jason fell in love with a seventeen year old girl, in 1999, you weren't here. He came back to help her and Emily a year later, and again in 2001. That is who Jason is, not the man you know. He was created out of pain and loneliness. He was a creation of several things that went wrong the summer that Sonny faked his death."

"You don't know what you are talking about."

"Sam, did Jason ever tell you that he asked Elizabeth to run away to Italy with him, or that she was the first woman to live in the penthouse? Did he ever tell you that he walked away to protect her, long before he did it to you."

Alexis and Sam turned to see Carly standing there along with a stunned Jax as Carly continued. "Sam, Jason will not be returning to you. You are just another version of me. Jason took me in when I was pregnant with Mikey."

"So, did he ask you to marry him?"

"No, because by the time he would have, I had married AJ in my grand scheme to keep the Quartermaines away from my son. The thing is he started to hang around Elizabeth that summer, I saw it, it was what lead me to sleeping with Sonny. The simple truth is, that you don't stand a chance anymore than I did. Jason is doing to you, what he did to me. Out of guilt, he tried to make you a friend after ending things. Unlike me, though, you refuse to see he no longer wants you for a lover."

"Oh, please. If Jason asked, you would be naked in his bed in a heartbeat." she sneered.

Carly gave a half smile then said "I know a lot of people think that, but the truth is, that no, I don't want Jason that way. Haven't for years. Sam, I am overprotective of Jason, for one reason only. I know the damage I did to him. Robin and I took the time that Jason should have been learning to live and what constitutes a normal relationship and made it about us."

"And we were wrong. We gave him a bad blueprint, making him think that giving us all we wanted, was the way to making us happy. Elizabeth and his relationship, has always scared me, for one reason only. I believed that she looked down on him, like Robin did. When in fact, she might be the only woman in his life who has seen him clearly."

"Of please, Carly, dream on."

"Sam, she is telling the truth." said Nik who had come out to find out what was going on. "You weren't here, you came here after Jason had his heart broken because of Sonny's lies and obsessive need to control things."

Carly swallowed the lump in her throat and said "He is right, Sonny was worried about Elizabeth, like I was. We knew that she would be first in his life, the moment, Jason lets himself go and truly follows his heart, I knew that Elizabeth was the one, I just worried she was not going to follow hers."

"She will never truly love him. She will always treat him like he is never good enough. Elizabeth uses Jake to keep him in line."

"No Sam, that would be you. I don't know how many times, you have thrown Sonny and your dead baby or your inability to have kids in his face, but Sam you knew going in what his life was like, you made that choice to live with him. I know that you egged on Manny, lied to Jason about his following you. You act like this big tough street wise woman, but Jason has always had to rescue you. The ability to kill someone doesn't make you the best woman for him."

"And saint Elizabeth would be a better match?" she said mocking Carly.

"Yes, she will be. I won't go into the reasons, because in the end you won't believe them, you are so convinced that you are the perfect girl for him. The truth is, you would and have betrayed his trust repeatedly. Look at how you told me the truth about Jake, you wanted me to attack Elizabeth, divide and conquer, right."

Sam said "Well you did, didn't you?"

"Yes, and I will always regret that. I know that Jason is going to find out how bad it was, Elizabeth's attorney mentioned it during the disposition I had to give today. I can only hope that I can make things right. But if I can't, I can walk away knowing Jason is happy. Can you say the same."

"He won't be, he never will be. Not with her."

Alexis said sadly as her cell phone rang. "And that is why you don't truly love Jason. You just want to possess or maybe win him is the right term."

Answering her phone, she grimaced and explained what Monica said to her. "I have to head over to the hospital to meet her. Sam, I assume you are heading back to the docks, you can give me a ride. Carly are you here to see Nik or me?"

"Nik." she said. When the two women had left, Jax sat down on the railing and said "This is not a good idea, Carly. Nik try to talk her out of what she is doing?"

"If you don't agree with her choice, why are you here?" he asked.

"Someone has to be sane when this disaster implodes." he said looking at his wife with exasperation.

Sam dropped Alexis off, then went to park. She wanted to see what she could find out about Jason. She had seen his SUV in the parking lot. Seeing him talking to Cody, she listened as he said "Milo is on a plane to Sicily. What are we going to do with this knowledge."

"I don't know. I still can't figure out why Sonny shot Max. It makes no sense."

"Sonny was determined to find out what his blackmailer had, he knew it was someone close. The only people cleared had been you. Carly's name was still on the list, for heaven's sake."

"So he might have been paranoid finding Max in the penthouse. I still can't wrap my mind around Luke Spencer making a play for our business though. He walked away from it years ago, why now?"

"Pride?" asked Cody. "We all know that Luke is thought of as a has been. In more ways than one."

"We may never find out. But I still want to know about the false paperwork and where it came from and who helped him. Frank Smith had a daughter, find her and ask her."

Sam split when she saw that Jason was heading the other way and she didn't want Cody to catch her, the former Marine had made it real clear he didn't trust her. Seeing the room where her mother was supposed to be, she took the stairs, knowing that Monica would call the police on her in heartbeat.

Monica and Bobbie waited until Alexis sat down next to Diane and said "Alexis, Sam isn't your daughter. Elizabeth Webber is."

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"You're wrong," she said before getting up to leave. Alexis had a very sick feeling about this. "I don't know why you are saying this, but I know that Sam is my daughter."

"Really?" asked Monica. "What proof do you have except some old documents, that can be forged if someone is willing to go far enough to hide the truth."

"Helena, for one." snapped Alexis. "When she was in town, she made a comment about my finding my bastard child. Then there is the fact that her little girl saved her sister."

"And both children were Sonny's. Alexis, does the name Ian Roma ring any bells?"

Seeing her turn a white, she whispered "Where did you hear that name? Did Helena tell you or did Stefan do so?"

"Neither, that is the name listed as Elizabeth's biological father. Jeff Webber lied to his son, it wasn't his daughter's mother that died, it was her father. Ian Roma's real name was Julian Jerome."

"Your son Lucas' father?" she asked. "Look, I don't know what you are up to but I am not in the mood for dealing with this. I just had a confrontation with Sam and she is determined not to see the truth about Jason and his feelings for Elizabeth. So why don't you just tell me what it is you want, and stop these games."

Bobbie moved over into the empty chair next to Alexis and reached out to hand her the papers. "Alexis, this isn't a game. Look, here are the DNA results from Kristina's test, these are the ones proving Sonny was her daughter's father. See the only matches are for Sonny. Did you ever stop to wonder why they didn't question you about similarities then?"

"It all happened so quickly." she said.

"True, but Alexis this is the DNA results comparing yours to Sam's. They were each on record from the tests for your daughters, they don't match. You are no more Sam's biological mother than you are Carly's."

Shuddering at the thought, Alexis said "If I accept that it means that I have..." with that they watched as she burst into tears.

"Alexis, are you okay?"

"OKAY?" she asked fuming. "Do you have any idea how twisted up in knots I was for months; now years over Sam. The times I have forgiven her made apologies for her. The times I have covered for her? She HAS TO BE MY DAUGHTER. She destroyed my life, for nothing." she said softly. "She has to be mine, otherwise why did I do it?"

Monica let Bobbie take the lead, both had agreed that she would be the one to let Alexis rage. When she finally calmed down, she said in a dull tone of voice, why are you sure that Elizabeth is my daughter, did you compare DNA's?

"We would have, but hers disappeared."

"She had two different DNA tests done on the boys, how is that possible?"

"Alan hid Cameron's after Ric tried to ... Alexis, you are not going to want to hear this, but at one point three years ago, Alan caught Ric trying to alter Cameron's DNA tests to show he was his father."

"Why would he do that and how come no one told me?"

"Ric tried to explain it away, but Alan didn't believe him. So he took Cameron's tests and hid them in a file that it took time to find today. Alan destroyed the tests and had the results filed in Albany, here and at two other reputable hospitals to prevent him from trying anything like that again."

Alexis looked down at her tightly clasped hands in her lap and said "Were we still together at the time?"

Swallowing her pity, Bobbie said "Yes, it was while you were suffering from cancer. But before he slept with Sam."

"Thanks for telling me the truth. Do you think he knew, do you think he suspected I was her mother, was that why he married me. Was I just a substitute for my daughter?" she whispered in pain.

"I doubt he knew about Elizabeth being your daughter, but I have no proof either way."

"Alexis, why are you accepting that we are telling the truth. What changed?"

"Nothing, I just had to deal with the idea that Sam wasn't mine. I... I was there when Sonny had that blood transfusion. I was his attorney then. My child's father had the same blood type. I remember when I heard Carly raging about using Elizabeth's blood. I knew that Stefan made the results disappear."

"Why did he do that?" asked Monica.

"At the time, I had no idea. I had seen the results and knew that Elizabeth wasn't related to Sonny, so I just put it out of my mind. But I think he knew. He always had a soft spot for Elizabeth. Now I can't help wondering what he knew and if he was protecting her from the family curse."

"What are you going to do with the knowledge?" asked Monica.

"Nothing, I won't claim her, I won't put her though a life with a mother who has treated her like I have for the last few years. I won't do that. Then there is the Helena fac..." The watched as the woman seemed to slip out of her chair and onto the floor.

"ALEXIS!" shouted Monica as she called out for a gurney. The woman had passed out, seeing her coming to, Monica wanted to admit her, but Alexis said "No, you don't understand. I think that Helena knows. I think she knows that Elizabeth is my child."

"Why do you say that?"

Not wanting to explain, Alexis said grimly, "Helena knows, just believe me on that. I am going to have to tell her, I have no choice. Oh my god, if she does know... "

"Jason might be telling Elizabeth even as we speak." said Bobbie, seeing her surprise, Bobbie said "Alexis, this isn't just about you or Sam. There is a serial killer out there who believes that she is his sister."

Elizabeth had cleaned up after her impromptu get together with the girls just in time as Jason pulled into the drive on his motorcycle. "Are you up for a ride?"

"Give me time to grab my jacket." she said before running in and grabbing her denim jacket wishing she had her leather one in the downstairs closet.

Once on the open road, Elizabeth held on tight as Jason took the curves and gave them time to relax for a little while. Way too soon the rain came and they had to return to the house. Walking up the stairs, Jason was helping her undress when they heard the sound of someone at the door.

"We had better get. It has to be important for someone to show up at midnight." she said while pulling her shirt back on.

Jason opened the door to Maxie Jones who looked terrible. "Jason, I need your help."

"What do you want Maxie?" he asked not moving to actually let her into the house.

"Spinelli, he was going to some run down building where he though the serial killer is. PLEASE. Jason, you can't just let him die."

"Maxie, why didn't you call your father, you know that the FBI is looking for him already." He doubted the blond was telling the truth, her usual MO was be right there with him.

"Jason, she might be telling the truth. You should go and find out. I will still be here waiting when you return." she said before kissing his cheek. "Find out if he is really in trouble."

"Are you sure?" he asked Maxie annoyed with both her and the computer geek.

"Yes, I saw the address on the computer." she said handing him the now crumpled piece of paper.

Walking outside, Jason took his bike in spite of the rain, wondering why Spinelli went to the building housing Elizabeth's studio. The only reason he actually believed Maxie was that fact.

Maxie walked to her car and got into the driver's seat and called her friend. "He is on the way. Are you sure that this won't backfire."

"Yes, thanks Maxie. I owe you one."

Elizabeth had watched through the window and knew that Jason was walking into a trap. Calling out she soon saw Aidan arriving on her doorstep from next door. Using her phone to call his private number, she left a text, knowing he would always keep that phone on. "I need a favor."

Listening, his eyes were dancing merrily as he agreed to help. "Robin might be a little pissed, but she so deserves what she is about to get. What about the other one?"

"I sent Jason a text while waiting for you. But Miss Maxie Jones, has annoyed me for the very last time."

"I will take care of it as soon as Morgan returns."

"Thank you." she said before returning inside. She trusted Jason, but knew that Sam was getting desperate, now was the time to stand back and let her world disintegrate.

Jason took out the phone as soon as he was in the hallway of the small building. Reading it, he shook his head thinking that Maxie Jones had gone too far this time. Calling his legitimate business partner, he gave him some orders then hung up. Now to deal with Sam.

Walking up the stairs, he went one floor up from Elizabeth's studio and saw that the door was ajar. Seeing the low lighting, he took out his flashlight and entered. Hearing the sound of someone behind him, he swung around and evaded the man's grasp.

Knocking him out, he tied the man up and heard the muffled sounds of someone shouting inside. Walking in, he was disgusted to see Sam tied up naked in the bed with a gag in her mouth. Ignoring her entreaties to free her, he saw her phone on a pile of items and picked it up.

Taking out his knife her reached over and cut her hand closest to him free and tossed the knife down on the bed. "Here, you can cut free yourself the rest of the way, while I look around." Walking to the closet, he saw the bag and the gun. He had to give her credit, she had set this up pretty good, but made one mistake.

"Where is Spinelli?" she asked as she walked up behind him and pressed her body against his.

"Sam get dressed. Now!" he said growling.

Taking her time, but knowing if she pushed things she would blow it. Standing there in her t-shirt and nothing else, she said "He took the rest of my clothes."

"Really, they are in this closet here. He didn't take them far." Walking around, he saw the wall was too close. Walking over he turned to discreetly check something.. "Why did he bring you here?"

"I have no idea, I was checking out something on the docks when I felt something covering my eyes and next thing I knew I was here."

"Well, I have to go find Spinelli. You might want to stay at Wyndamere until this man is caught."

"I wouldn't feel safe alone there. You know how many ways there are to get into that place. How about I stay at the penthouse. Your presence will make me feel safer." she said before giving him a sad smile. "I have always felt safe there, like right after my daughter died. You made me feel safe in spite of everything going on."

Jason gagged internally and looking straight into the camera said "Is that why you set this up?"

"Set what up?" she asked bewildered.

"Nice try Sam, but my guess is that either Spencer never told you about this place and you saw me here recently or this is was the result of some check of ownership papers by Spinelli and you know that I own this building."

Seeing the way she seemed confused by the second idea, he said "There is a camera behind this false wall."

"I don't know what you are talking about." she insisted all the while wondering where she had made her mistake. She had been looking for a place to set up for backup to Spinelli and seen Jason coming into this place. The camera setup was for the new career.

"Really, I suppose you don't know about the cell call from Maxie Jones nor the one you made to her while supposedly unconscious. Either way, I am not interested." with that Jason hit the wall a few inches below the peep hole and reached in and grabbed the camera.

"Shall we look at the tape together." he asked mockingly. Rewinding he showed her paying off the man he had tied up outside, the call to Maxie and finally her stripping and offering the man a free show after dealing with Jason.

"Nothing to say?" he asked. "Good, now I am going to give you twenty four hours to leave town, or I will make it my business to ruin you. Don't worry about Spinelli, I am sure that once he sees this, you won't have to be partners in his business any longer."

Walking out the door, Jason called Cody and told the guard to find Maxie Jones and follow her.

Sam tossed the room, furious. She wanted to know how Jason knew this building so well. Hearing a beep from her phone, she rushed over to get it and saw that Maxie had left a text. Reading it, she wondered how the blond knew that her night had just collapsed. Walking out the door, she was soon entering penthouse where Maxie had asked her to meet.

"Maxie?" she called out as she walked through the door. This was crazy she thought when she saw her penthouse had been trashed.

"Fair Samantha?" asked Spinelli as he came in behind her. "Why did you ask me to meet you here."

"She didn't. I did." said the man standing behind him. "Now get in there and don't be stupid."

"Who are you?" Sam asked the man. He was too old to be this Peter guy who was supposed to be Jason's age.

"A friend of Jason Morgan's. I am here to deliver a message as soon as, ah, there she is." he said as Maxie entered. "Sit down, Miss Jones."

"I know you! My Mom isn't going to be happy about this." she exclaimed.

"Yes, well I doubt she would be particular pleased with you, either. Now sit down." when they were all seated on the sofa, he looked at them. "I have a message for all of you from Jason Morgan. Sam, he meant what he said. Twenty-fours hours from the moment he left that building. By the way, you really are a stupid slut, aren't you. Trying to seduce him after faking being grabbed in the building where he fell in love with Elizabeth. Talk about a wrong move."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"That is where Elizabeth Webber's studio is. It's where they lived together in '99. Then again in '01. Trust me the only woman Jason wants to get busy with in that building is her. Now if you had tried it in Courtney's old loft, well, you really wouldn't have had any better luck, but that wouldn't be because of the memories."

"Who are you? Who is he?" she asked Maxie.

"Roy Deluca. He used to date my mom."

"Enough chatter, as for you Mr. Spinelli. Jason doesn't know if you were involved with this set up or not, but he wanted you to be here so that you would get the picture. Maxie and Sam are no longer to be part of your life if you want to be part of his. Simple as that."

"But what happened?" he asked completely bewildered.

"They can explain after I leave, but know this. You have two choices, you can come with me now and still be a part of Jason's world or you can stay with these two. Both of whom have used you repeatedly. Here." he said tossing the SD card from the camera at him. Watch this, you have five minutes, then I am out the door."

Sam just sat there, Spinelli was her friend, she wasn't worried. Elizabeth and Jason together made him feel left out and she knew that he hated that.

Maxie saw Sam's face and realized she didn't get it. There was no way that he wouldn't choose his hero.

The sad look on Spinelli's face as he closed his laptop and stood, broke Maxie's heart.

"Fa-Sam, I think we need to dissolve our partnership. Don't you get it, the young progeny deserve to have Stone Cold in their lives. If that means being with Fair Elizabeth, so be it. You should have never done this."

"But-But Spinelli, he can still be with his son and be with me." she protested. "Elizabeth is the reason we aren't together."

"You finally got something right, I am proud of you." Roy mocked Sam. "But the underlying story to that, is that Morgan has finally returned to being the man I knew when I lived here before. You were a footnote in history. One that in five years time will only exist because of your connections to the Cassadines."

Seeing her face turn white, he wondered what that was about, but truly didn't care. Turning to Maxie, he said "Your mother and sister would be ashamed of you. What happened to turn you into this? Are you really that stunted by your past that you don't realize Lucky was using you. Just like that kid Kyle did. Maxie, go spend some time in Texas, get your head on straight. Take a good look at who you are becoming and who you are hanging around with."

Spinelli left with the stranger then asked "You aren't the serial killer are you?"

"A little late to be asking that, isn't it." he said before cuffing the younger kid on the head.

Jason arrived home to see Elizabeth curled up asleep in their bed. Taking a quick shower to wash off the day, he climbed in beside her. "So, how was it set up?" she asked sleepily.

"Tied up, naked. Man outside. My guess is that he was supposed to let me get inside and start to free her, then knock me out. He jumped the gun."

"Well, I say we give him our thanks. Who is dealing with them?"

"Roy, I brought him into town, since he had a past with Luke and Sonny both." He said as he curled around her. "Tomorrow we have to wake up earlier."

"Why?" she asked nuzzling into his neck.

"Because I am too tired to do anything other than just lie there and let you have your way with me." he said as she laughed . Then reaching down, he slipped his hand between them and eased over to her breast, "Well maybe not that tired."

Elizabeth was still laughing as she found herself on her back as Jason removed the covers. As he lifted her to removed her t-shirt, he stopped and listened. "Nope, nothing at the door, my phone hasn't rang. I guess I am wrong, they don't have our bedroom bugged."

Reaching up to pull his head down, she said "Just in case, let's give them a pretty good show."

Alexis got out of bed, it was three in the morning and she couldn't sleep. Walking down to Nik's study she saw him reading a book. "Can't sleep?"

"No, I slept pretty good, until Spencer had a nightmare. Now he is fine, sleeping in my bed, so I came down to read."

"Anything good?" she asked before going to pour herself a glass of water.

"Family history. I was looking for that relative you told me about. The one that Stefan said looked like Elizabeth. I can't believe she is my cousin. I had a crush of her." he said with smile.

"Hey, instead of being part of a trashy Jerry Springer episode, part two, I am only part one. I married my daughters ex-husband."

"That's true. And instead of Sam who slept with Sonny after you, and who seduced Ric out of vengeance knowing he was her stepfather, you married Ric not knowing."

"Yes, but it turns out Ric was still obsessed with Liz." she said Seeing that Nik wasn't surprised asked what do you know?

"Ric set it up to make Lucky look like he was still using drugs after he stopped. At the time, I wondered if he still had feelings for her."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she raged.

"You had enough to deal with. Ric and Sam, Cancer, your job. Besides, Elizabeth made it quite clear she wasn't interested in him. I think he finally got the message, that was why he went after her during Jason's trial."

Sam woke up hearing sounds. Maxie had left hours ago, making it plain she couldn't afford to lose her dad's support.

Walking out onto her terrace she saw her hot tub was now on and one of her CD's was playing. "Interesting, was Spencer really that easy, or just that will desperate."

Turning she asked who are you?

"I could say I am another messenger from Morgan, but that would be a lie." he said before leaning against the hot tub. When she walked towards him, he said, "I could tell you I am a messenger from your step-grandmother, but I am not."

"What are you talking about." she asked while trying to locate the corkscrew from her champagne bottle.

"Helena Cassadine, while doing research, I came across how much she delights in torturing her step-daughter, Alexis. Have you ever wondered why she left you alone. Or are you not capable of thinking ahead?"

"Who are you?"

"Let's see, I am the man who has killed your two ex-l, excuse me your three ex-lovers. You didn't screw Spencer Sr. did you? I like to keep my notes accurate." he said.

Sam tried to evade his moving towards her, but found herself pushed into her hot tub.

"Relax, Miss McCall, you are not going to die here. Your death is going to be something special, a thing of wonder. You are going to die where you should have a long time ago. It's a shame your surgeon was so skilled."

Sam found herself immobilized and yet capable of hearing him talk. But she had no ability to respond nor to escape. "What to know a secret, my dad isn't Elizabeth biological father."

Wondering what he was talking about, Sam paid attention knowing she was not going to die this way. "Elizabeth is adopted. The Webbers took her in, but she is still my sister, just like Sarah. I meet Sarah, didn't like her much. Elizabeth on the other hand, is everything a sister should be. She was so nice to me when I worked at GH, before she ever learned about having a brother.

"But noblesse oblige, you know what I mean, Sam?"

"Wait that's right, you don't know. You are some stray cat that believed you had finally found your roots. Too bad it was a lie. You are no more a Cassadine, than your friend Lucky was. Sorry about that. A piece of trash floating around to whatever man will pay your bills that is all you are."

"You know what is really ironic, when the truth comes out, your family is going to be so happy. Even Helena will be happy for the truth to come out. Well maybe not, she after all kept it quiet that you are not Alexis. Probably to punish Alexis, since lets face it, you aren't who she would chose for a kid."

Struggling towards freedom, Sam tried to talk. "Does poor little Sammy want to say something? Too bad."

"Now where was I, oh yes. Alexis and her real daughter. She lives right here in Port Charles you know. Yes from the look in your eyes, you figured it out. Elizabeth Webber is the daughter of Alexis Davis and her teenage love. A man in hiding. I found out by accident, you know."

"Julian Jerome, former gangster. At one point his family ran Port Charles. So I guess to a certain extent, Elizabeth is heiress to the Port Charles docks. Julian made sure she was safe, years ago. Too bad he placed her with the Webbers, Mrs. Dr. Webber wanted a boy, see. Not a little girl."

"Well, I will tell you more, later, right now we have to move to the hospital. I want to be sure that they use your heart, after all you never used it and there is a sixteen year old girl on life support just waiting for one with your rare blood type. Her family has almost given up hope. So, think on this while you are living your last few hours, you are finally going to be doing the good you have faked for so long."

Elizabeth woke up and groaned when she saw the clock. Her grams and the boys were due in this afternoon and she had to work this morning until 11:00. Waking Jason with a kiss, she invited him to share her shower.

"We need to talk first." he said slightly grimly. "Monica needs you to take a blood test and a mouth swab so that she can run that blood test. Are you going to be alright with this?"

"Yes, I mean, either way, nothing really changes. Instead of the Webber family that has ignored and belittled me, I end up with Alexis who hates me and one of my closest friends as a cousin. Even Helena has already made it plain she hates me, so that won't change."

"Don't take this that lightly, Elizabeth. I am scared for you." he said intently.

"I'm sorry, I just don't want to face that she could be my mother. The Alexis from before Kristina's death, yes. The woman who came afterwords, no." she said looking at Jason. "I don't hate her, but Jason, I can't deal with her. She has been so blind to what Sam has done for the last few years. It was always someone else's fault. Sonny's, Jacks, yours, mine, even Lucky wasn't guilty of being involved with Sam. She chased him. But in Alexis' mind we were all responsible for Sam's bad decisions."

"Just take the test, we will deal with what they say later." he said kissing her. "Now do you want me to meet your at the airport or back here?"

"Either is fine, but right now I want your butt in the shower." she said with a laugh.

An hour later, she was taken to GH by the guard where she went to see Epiphany.

"Where am I today?"

"I need you up on the surgical floor. The health inspectors are coming in to recheck the rooms before we can get permission to perform surgery there. So if you need a break, call and get me first. I want either you or I there. Nadine is to deal with the patients, you take care of my inspectors for me."

Elizabeth resisted the urge to salute as she walked to the elevators.

Arriving at the hub, she saw Nadine was already working on getting things up to date. "So, I understand you are the lucky winner in the keep Epiphany sane sweepstakes?"

"I just don't get it, why me?"

"Because you are a Webber/Hardy and best friends with the man whose money keeps this place running. Or may it just that she wants you to flash those baby blues and that smile at the inspector." said Nadine as she left the hub with a smile.

Jason decided to deal with Carly now that he had talked to Cody and the men. Business was going to be fine, but he wanted anything Sonny was running through the Zachara docks shut down. They had no idea how or what Anthony had been up to.

Walking into the Metrocourt, he saw Diane talking to a tall blond man. When she beckoned him over, he was introduced to Elizabeth's attorney, Jackson Montgomery.

"We have another disposition for the case today." he explained, then asked Jason how his client was dealing with the various things going on.

"Better, her grams is bringing in our sons today." he said then excused himself to talk to the woman walking down the hall. "Kate do you have a minute?"

When they were in relative privacy, he explained that the money she had received that morning to prop up her magazine came from him through his legitimate businesses. "I only want one thing then the debt is paid off. Diane will be over with papers stating that as soon as you fire Maxie Jones."

"What is your problem with my assistant?" she asked.

"She lied repeatedly to my fiancee and she has been doing things to hurt her. I have given her plenty of chances in memory of her sister, but no more. I don't care if you help her get a job elsewhere, but I want her out of this town."

Kate was thinking on his request, Maxie gone or five million dollars to pay back. She wasn't even sure that was a fair deal. She could get Maxie a job at her old magazine and all would be taken care off. Then she thought on what he had said, well at least Carly hadn't been lying when she asked for her help in finding a wedding dress for Elizabeth Webber.

"I will take care of it today. By the way congratulations on getting married. I know that you will have better luck than Sonny and I did. Jason, I am sorry for the way I acted the last few months. I blamed the wrong people, it wasn't even Anthony Zachara that was responsible, it was Sonny and his choices and my own."

"Kate, if it matters, I think that he really did want to try with you." he said . "I get that it isn't much of a consolation, but I have been in his shoes, wanting to protect the one I loved and made the wrong choice, it was what lead to my marriage to his sister instead of Elizabeth. I walked away, three times, she did the same, but ..." Jason was embarrassed to find himself explaining things to this woman he barely knew.

"I get it." she said before touching his arm. "Jason, you are a good man in spite of the business you are in. I made the mistake of thinking Sonny was. Make sure that Elizabeth knows how much you love her. Those boys too. Thank you for your help with the magazine."

Carly saw Jason coming towards her and sent the wedding planner away. She had hired the man knowing that her ideas of the perfect wedding would not be Elizabeth's. This was to be her way of saying sorry, but Jax and Nik had finally gotten through to her that she might not succeed.

"Jason, how are things?" she asked feeling awkward.

"Fine, but we need to talk about a few things." he said grimly. When they were in her office, he asked "What did you tell Lorenzo Alcazar about Elizabeth and my past?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Because it is coming back to roost. Claudia knew Lorenzo, it was now the Zacharas found out that she meant so much to me. It was HOW Sasha learned about my son. So Carly, once again your mouth is why my family was in danger."

Seeing her turn white, he asked what did you tell him?

"Not much, I mean I mentioned how happy I was that you were with Courtney instead of Elizabeth. That I..."

"What Carly, what did you tell him?"

Softly she admitted. "I told him that I was worried that if she was still in town, after Cameron was born, that you would run to her. That some part of you was always drawn to her."

"God, Carly. You can tell the truth to some random man but you can't face it yourself, can you." he said annoyed. "Carly, we don't have time for a Carly plan, so stay out of my life." Jason saw that it was almost nine and knew that Elizabeth was taking a break then, headed over to see her, needing to get far away from Carly.

Carly watched him leave, then sat there thinking on things. Walking into Jax' office, she said "I lost him." with tears in her eyes. "I truly lost Jason."

As she came into his arms, he listened as she explained about Lorenzo and all that had happened. "Carly are you now ready to realize that your plan isn't going to work?"

"Yes, well at least I can give Elizabeth the dress." she said sadly. Walking to the door, she called the wedding planner and canceled the wedding party, changing it into impromptu celebration of life.

Calling over to GH she made plans to talk to Elizabeth, giving her the dress, then hoping and praying that in the end, it wasn't the end.

Sam woke up to find she was staring up at the surgical lights. "Ah, sleeping beauty is awake."

"Shall we begin, I have an idea, let's start with the organs you have spares of. Maybe your eyes?"

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Elizabeth was finishing her coffee break just as Epiphany was called down to the ER.

"Elizabeth, you are back on the clock. Mr. Morgan, don't scare the inspectors when they show up." She said before heading to the elevators grateful that these ones worked better than the old ones.

"Inspectors?" Asked Jason.

"We have to have the operating rooms checked out before we can use the ones on this floor. Somehow they were skipped or the paperwork was lost." She explained. "Nik swears that he walked through them with the men from the board, but they claim to have no papers."

Kissing her goodbye, Jason walked past a man wearing surgical gear carrying a transplant cooler. Stopping he went back down the hall and then told himself he was being paranoid when he saw him go up to the helipad.

Mac was going over the latest forensics with Raynor when he got the call from the transplant board. "Thank you."

Then calling GH found out that they did have a record on the computer about a transplant surgery going on. "We have a set of lungs going to John Hopkins."

Hanging up, Mac and the agent were once again going over the data when they saw Alexis entering the room. "Mac, I was just at Sam's place. Did you hear that she isn't my daughter?"

"Yes, Monica told me."

"I went to tell her, but her place was tossed it looked like there was some sort of fight out on the terrace."

"Relax, Jason called me this morning, Sam tried to make it look like she was attacked yesterday. Jason was following information from Maxie that he thought would lead to Spinelli and found her tied up at one of the studio apartments."

"Fine, do you have anyone watching her? I need to find her and talk to her about this." She said. She had decided to deal with her faux daughter first, not that that would be a piece of cake either but she thought it might be far less emotional then dealing with Elizabeth. Sam's feelings would be all about what affect this was going to have on herself and Alexis knew that she could deal with the temper tantrum that was about to be sprung by Sam. She had proven time and time again that she didn't take bad news well.

Maxie was smiling when she entered the Metrocourt and took the elevator up to Crimson. Thinking on the previous evening, she knew that all would be well. No matter what, at least things between Spinelli and her were cleared up. She was not going to lose her friend over helping Sam.

"Miss Jones; please join me in my office." Said Kate coming to the doorway. Once the blond was settled, she said "I think you have achieved all you can as my assistant, so I have arranged for a new job for you."

"Really?" She asked excited, wondering if she was going to get her own column.

"Yes, Fredrico needs a new assistant and has agreed to hire you."

Maxie lost her smile, realizing that this was a step down on the ladder to success. "Are you unhappy with my work?"

"No, in fact as an assistant your work has been more than adequate. The problem is that you have upset one of my investors and he made it plain that he won't lend me any more money as long as you are in my employ."

"Bu-but, who did I upset?" She asked confused. "Jax likes me, I know Carly doesn't, but he has already told her to keep her nose out of things."

"True, but it is one of my silent investors, you should know that Miss Spencer is being replaced as well. However you are the only one I arranged a job for."

"Kate, is there a way to make this right?" She asked not wanting to leave for New York yet.

"From what I was told, you were given several opportunities and you messed them all up, so the answer is no. You have twenty minutes to clear out your desk. You may take a copy of the Rolodex with you. Maxie, I am quite certain that at some point in the future, you will be allowed back, but it was made quite plain that you are not to remain in my employ or here in Port Charles."

Walking out, she saw that Lulu had a box and was clearing out her desk. "Did you get me fired?"

"Lulu, I am being let go as well." She said waspishly. "But at least Kate got me another job. I am the new head assistant to Fredrico Cabrero. Good luck getting your old job back at Kelly's."

Picking up a disc, she inserted it in the slot and copied the address list. At least she wasn't Lulu, she thought to herself as she tried to call Spinelli.

"Fair Elizabeth a word please." Said Spinelli as he approached the hub.

"It will have to be here and if the words Sam McCall cross your lips once, you are going to be tossed out of here."

"I just wanted to say I am sorry for what she has done." He said looking down.

"Spinelli you are not responsible for Sam, only for your own mistakes." Said Elizabeth. Looking at the kid, she said "And you made plenty of them, but so did Jason and I. Now I am sure that Jason has you working on something, so why don't you head to the office."

"Ma-may I ask what you intend to do about me?" He asked.

"Do about you? What are you talking about-?"

"Elizabeth, why is someone using one of the surgical theaters did you authorize it?" Asked Monica as she walked up to the hub.

"No, we don't have our licenses for them. Spinelli, I don't have time to deal with you now." She said before telling Nadine to call down and get Epiphany and Dr. Drake stat!

Monica and Elizabeth grabbed some scrubs once they saw that the room's new blinds had been drawn. "Whose idea was it anyhow for this to be set up this way?" Grumbled Elizabeth as they quickly changed into scrubs and disinfected.

Nadine saw Jason returning and said "Elizabeth is a bit busy right now. Come back later."

"Stone Cold." Said an excited Spinelli.

"Not now." Said agent Raynor as he and Mac came rushing into the area.

"What is going on?" Asked Jason grimly when he saw Drake and Epiphany Johnson arriving with two strangers.

"Where is Elizabeth?" Asked Patrick.

"She and Dr. Quartermaine went to find out what was going on. What is going on?" Asked Nadine.

The two officers of the law and several others in uniform came in as Patrick explained that they had to approach the room from the upper theater.

"Fine, but we are wasting time." Mac went to tell Morgan to stay behind, but didn't bother wasting his breath.

Elizabeth went through the door to the operating room first, wondering if Dr. Maruchi had ignored the ban, the man had been rather unhappy that his surgery had been moved to the third floor earlier. Entering she saw the blood and that there was only one person working on the patient and froze.

Monica rushed in behind her and stopped at what she saw. Sam McCall was a bloody mess, it looked like her left cornea was gone and from where she was opened up like she was missing a liver. "Don't come any closer."

"Peter, don't do this." Said Elizabeth as she realized someone had come into the upper theater, she could feel Jason's presence but hoped he realized that if he wasn't in sterilized gowns, they would be killing Sam.

"Why?" He asked without looking up and not stopping from where he was holding the scalpel to Sam's throat.

Monica looked at the machines and realized that the man was planning on performing a heart transplant. Sam was already on the bypass machine. "Because not even she deserves to die this way."

Elizabeth moved closer, in spite of hearing the sound of frantic knocking on the bulletproof glass. Right now she was wishing that Nik hadn't insisted on getting that installed. Seeing Sam's hand twitch she said, "She is feeling this, isn't she?"

"Of course, what is the use of killing someone you don't like if they can't feel the pain?" He said idly. "Do you really think that my mother didn't feel the pain when Diego Alcazar killed her, or that any of Sam's other victims didn't feel the pain when she hurt them?"

"Peter, you can't be judge, jury and executioner." Said Monica.

"I'm not, I just decided that there was a better use for her heart. A young girl about sixteen, her parents are waiting for the call even as we speak, do you really want to take away their hope, for her?"

"Sam is still alive, let me help her." Said Monica.

"No, instead why don't you tell those officers up there and Mr. Morgan that I will be glad to turn myself in after I am finished. Because what we have is a stalemate and you know it. They can't cut the electricity or they kill her. They can't take a shot without harming one of you and while I am sure that the FBI agent might be fine with that, Morgan won't allow Elizabeth to be hurt."

"Shall we continue, because either way she dies tonight? So choose, make it possible for an innocent to receive this heart, or let her death be a waste."

"How do we get down there?" Asked Mac.

"You can't, he is correct. If you enter without sterilized gowns, you kill her. Your only choice is to let the two women talk him down."

"It doesn't sound like they will be able to do that." Snapped Agent Raynor. "Get my men suited up."

Jason saw that man with the scalpel look up and said "Raynor, he can hear you, you idiot. You are leaning on the speaker button."

"He is correct, don't do anything stupid, Agent Raynor, in fact why don't you leave this to the people who know this town best. My guess is that there is no one here who will mourn the loss of Sam McCall." Said Peter even as he worked on the woman.

Elizabeth saw his hand tighten on the scalpel and showed Monica with her eyes.

Nodding, Monica moved to the end and far away from the patient when she realized what Elizabeth saw.

Knowing that she needed to make the man relax a little, Elizabeth asked "Where did you get your medical skills?"

"From the moment that my grandmother told me the truth about my life, I made plans then studied to be a doctor. Even worked here, but you know that. After graduation, I went to see our father; told him I was his child. He said it wasn't possible, but he knew the truth, it was why he altered the DNA tests. He had to have, why else would they say he wasn't my dad."

Elizabeth swallowed her fear and kept him talking. "You didn't miss much; Jeff was a lousy father."

The man upstairs with Patrick Drake flinched, Agent Raynor had believed his showing up might make this man face the truth, but from the sound of it, it wouldn't. He couldn't believe that the only one in with his little girl was the woman who had married him loving his brother.

"I know. I talked to people. I wanted to come to you, but Sonny Corinthos found out my working here was illegal, that I didn't have the right medical license and tried to blackmail me. I was a doctor working as a male nurse, but he didn't know that. It all went wrong because of him. He ruined my life."

"How did he do that?" She asked while watching as Monica had the camera's set up for Patrick above.

Patrick elbowed Morgan and showed him the screen. The killer's hand was shaking slightly and seemed to be getting tenser the longer this was dragging out. But they could also see his face and knew that he wanted a connection to Elizabeth, that he wouldn't cut as long as she kept talking. They could only hope that she would be able to talk him down.

"I was angry and had a syringe full of the infection; I could have given it to the doctors for study, like I was supposed to. I figured it out, you see. I knew what was going on, what would help those people. Instead, I was walking down the hall and over heard him in a room telling someone how that baby his sister was having should have been Morgan's. He said it was a shame that her hitting you was what ruined their relationship."

"Why would that bother you?"

"There was more, he was all happy that this woman here was dating Morgan. He said that if it had been you that he would have been fighting to get to you at the hospital, not out doing what was needed to help Sonny's family. That was the first time I heard of the two of you being involved at any point. I went to check on this sister of his, I went to the medical records, I saw her history there, and I knew. I knew that she didn't deserve to be a mother anymore than this one did. I mean, it wasn't for you, but that if she did what she did to you, what had she done to others she didn't like."

"Peter, what did you do?" Asked Elizabeth feeling sick.

"Nothing at first, then I overheard that annoying blond who was married to Corinthos talking to someone about this Courtney being some sort of saint, like hell. The woman was a slut who slept with anything that had power and money. She was no saint. I thought that if the woman died, the other girl, the pretty one would go back to the Prince and that that poor man who was the baby's father would be happier without having to deal with her."

"You killed her?" She asked.

"No. At least I didn't mean to at first. But that other blond was rude to you then the other pretty one, as well as this young girl who was with her sick boyfriend and I knew, I knew that I finally had found my calling. I decided to make those who hurt others pay. She was the first, and when they lifted quarantine, I went to her loft and found her secrets. I knew that I had made the right choice, but my grandmother made me come with her, she said I was sick, but I wasn't sick, I was just doing what others were to weak to do."

The group upstairs were all thinking about how many more victims were out there that they didn't know about. Jason though, hadn't taken his eyes off of Elizabeth as she seemed to regain her emotional control and kept talking to Peter.

Monica was monitoring Sam and knew that they had mere minutes before it was too late to help her. But a small part of her couldn't help wondering about whether helping Sam was even worth it, Peter was right, this other girl might be able to use this heart more.

Carly was walking off the elevator when she saw Spinelli and Nadine talking to about ten policemen and from what it looked like every single security officer from the hospital. "What is going on?"

Getting the story, she handed the dress bag to Nadine and said "Could you please hang this someplace for Elizabeth. Spinelli, I need you." With that she dragged the young geek off and suggested calling Alexis.

"She is here." He said pointing to the woman who just got off the elevator that Carly had exited minutes before. Seeing the police escort her down the hall, the two followed curious as to why they were allowing her to see her daughter.

Arriving in the hallway, they could hear what was going on through the operating room speakerphones as Elizabeth kept trying to reach Peter. "So what happened, why did you leave town after killing Courtney."

_"Killing Courtney?"_ Thought Carly. _"What was she talking about?"_

"First I went to Atlantic City; I meet the girl's mother, no wonder she was such a vapid excuse for a human being. I had it all planned, but Grandmother Alice figured it out, so I couldn't kill her then. I had to wait, but things got a way from me. They kept me in seclusion, then Mom showed up."

"You said they, who was there besides Alice." Asked Elizabeth while moving a little closer.

"Some man she hired to keep me in line. But Mom made her get rid of him. Things were back to normal. Mom had us move not far from here and I spent time helping people. Then that dark haired man grabbed Mom on orders from that woman."

"Claudia." Stated Elizabeth.

"Yes, they took her away and grandmother wanted to keep me caged up again. But I had been plotting my escape for years. It worked and the government helped, Witness Protection, what a wonderful program, but I wanted to know my family, I wanted to know you, protect you, but it didn't work out. That man came back."

"What man?" She asked getting confused.

"The one, who helped the woman grab my mother, I got away and wanted to come here, but first I had to rescue my mom. She was far away but I got there. Too late. It was too late. The man they grabbed my mom to help, bragged about killing her, I followed him to Port Charles last year right after the New Years, but my grandmother showed up and had me taken away."

"Wait, Peter you saw Diego Alcazar arrive here on New Years?" She asked stunned while Monica found herself about to pass out.

Peter's announcement electrified the theater about and the people in the hallway. Either this man was delusional as well as crazy or Diego Alcazar hadn't been the TMK killer.

Lainey finally arrived but Mac told her to wait, that Elizabeth seemed to be getting through to him. Seeing Kelly and Robin arriving with Anna, Mac took her to the side and said "After this is over, I want you to review the TMK case."

Nodding she moved in closer and saw Elizabeth, Bobbie had called her and gave her the news that Monica, Bobbie and Alexis had been dealing with. Looking down at Elizabeth she saw bits of Julian Jerome in her, from her curls to her smile. But how had Jeff Webber come to believe that Julian was still alive.

Looking at Alexis, Anna didn't see the attraction, but knew that the woman had had a hard road to toll for the last few years and she had been beaten down emotionally for a the last few years. Maybe learning the truth would help someday. But for now, she would do as ordered by the WSB and keep the secrets she has once sworn to protect.

Monica nodded at Elizabeth who was regretful for the betrayal of this sick man's trust when she took a step back and received the needle from Monica.

Patrick turned white, then pointed to the switch on the wall. Jason took a deep breath, terrified as he got what Elizabeth and Monica wanted. Mac had seen the little interaction and reached out silently and took the Emergency switch in his hands and hoped that whatever they had planned didn't get them killed.

Sam McCall's life wasn't worth theirs.

Jason found himself praying as the Police commissioner hit the fire suppression system and the power for the operating room went out. Not seeing anything in the darkness, he was gripping the bar tightly as they heard the scuffle below.

Then the sound of Elizabeth calling out for help from Patrick. When the backup lights came on, Patrick muttered and oath and without care, rushed towards the lower doors as Robin and Lainey entered as well. Drake tossed Jason a gown as they went into the room to see Monica telling Elizabeth what needed done.

"Drake, help her." Shouted Jason as he went to pull Elizabeth to safety.

"Jason, no!" Said Elizabeth. "If I let go, Sam dies."

Patrick had come to realize that Elizabeth was messaging the heart since the bypass machines hadn't started again. Seeing Monica's hands covered with blood, he realized she was bleeding and couldn't take over. Going to the phone he called for Leo Julian to come to the OR STAT!

Jason stood behind Elizabeth as Monica gave her directions while Robin and Lainey helped get Peter out the door and into the waiting police officers custody. "Monica what did you give him?"

"Strong sedative, that was all I could find." She said before returning to Sam. "Patrick, call the donor bank, it is too late to save Sam."

Elizabeth gasped when she felt the woman on the operating tables hand grasp her. "Monica, she is still feeling pain, I thought you gave her the shot."

"I did, but it might take a few minutes to kick in." said the woman as Leo came into the room and got control of his gag reflex.

Elizabeth saw that Sam was mouthing something and moved in closer. "Sam, what is it?"

"This is all your fault... You stole my... Life away from me."

Elizabeth looked at the woman who had only one eye and whose internal organs were exposed and leaned in and said "No, you borrowed my life, but that was over a long time ago. Die with some dignity Sam."

Sam shouted as loud as she could, but it came out as a whimper as they placed the mask on her face just as she lost consciousness.

Leo replaced Elizabeth's hands with his as Jason pulled her out of the room and into the cleaning area. "We need to get you cleaned up."

Monica was getting cleaned as they prepped her to sew up her stitches. "Elizabeth, you did everything you could." She told the nurse. Monica knew that Sam had at least five more minutes before it was too late, but had told Leo that she had been without oxygen for too long.

"We need to find out who can sign the papers for the transplant." Said Epiphany as she came into the room.

"Alexis Davis still has her power of attorney in spite of her not being her mother." Said Patrick as he joined them from the operating room. "Where is Robin?"

"She went with her mother and Mac to the station." Said an entering Lainey. "Elizabeth, if you ever need to talk..."

"Thanks Lainey, but right now, I just want to go home and see my boys. Oh my god, Jason, they were supposed to be arriving at the airport today." She said turning to him, wondering if a guard had gone to get them.

"Miss Webber, your family is downstairs." Said her guard who saw that Jason was glaring at him as he entered.

Elizabeth saw and hugging Jason loosely said "I need to shower and change, can you ask my grandmother to take the boys to...?"

"My office." Said Monica from where her hand was now being wrapped.

"Monica, you need an aids test." Said Patrick. Starting to protest, she recalled whose blood had been in her open wound and sighed knowing he was right.

Peter woke up as they placed him in a jail cell and smiled. Sam McCall was dead and soon he would be too. His mother had been avenged along and he had taken out some of the biggest users in town a long the way. Seeing Mac Scorpio and the FBI agent with him standing at the cell door he said, "You do realize that I am going to be locked up in a mental institution, right?"

"We aren't here about that; we want to know what Coleman had on Corinthos? And what you know about Max Giambetti's death."

"Do you want an attorney?" Asked Mac.

"No, won't make a difference either way. Well, here it is, Sonny Corinthos knew that Frank Smith never had true ownership of the Port Charles territories. The Jerome family did. Luke Spencer found out about this recently, and decided to take a little revenge on Corinthos, he told him he was slow and getting old, that Spencer couldn't keep up with the big dogs anymore."

"So how did you end up involved?"

"I was at Jake's to find proof that Coleman blackmailed Sonny back several years ago. I found out about it when I killed that Courtney. She was the reason that Sonny gave him the funds and the help with the liqueur license. He had something on the blond and her brother. Anyhow, from what it looked like, Spencer couldn't find the papers so he created some fake ones, the same man did another job for Spencer a few years ago about a will."

Nodding, Mac thought about it and came up with Alan Quartermaine. "Fine, so the papers were fakes, how does this involve killing the guard?"

"I only know what I saw while in the penthouse, they were both there, the guard first. Corinthos showed up and asked why he was there. They talked but it was clear that Corinthos didn't believe him. I heard them arguing as they went into the hall and then the sound of a muffled shot, Corinthos came back in and tossed something in the trash then tried to leave."

"Tried to?" Asked Raynor.

"Yes, Special Agent-in-Charge, tried. See I delayed his leaving a bit so that I could kill him."

Mac hide a grin at the dig then said "We didn't find anything in the trash."

"That is because I took it out, it is back at where I have been staying."

"Which is?" Asked Raynor annoyed.

"Courtney Matthews old loft. Her mother is there waiting for me."

"She she dead." Asked Mac even as he gave the order to send a unit over there.

"Not yet, see I couldn't kill her in the end. She is dying of severe liver damage, brought on by too much drinking. The poor pathetic woman is grateful for my care; I can't wait for her to find out that the man she has been so indebted to is the reason her daughter died. It's a shame I will miss it."

Mac and Raynor walked away, both needing a breather, most killers were at least on the surface sorry, but this one wasn't even sorry he was caught.

"Mac, we took the woman to the hospital, she is in bad shape. She says she is on the donor list for a liver."

Elizabeth entered Monica's office as the boys rushed to her. Hugging them tightly, she saw Monica was drawing Audrey off while Jason became reacquainted with them. Watching as the foursome were holding onto one another and talking, Monica gave Audrey a brief overview of what was going on.

"So he thought he was Steven?" She asked confused.

"Yes, Jeff went to the station. He tried to talk to Elizabeth, but Anna Devane kept him away along with her guard. You knew this Alice better than I did, what was she thinking telling him these things?"

"Alice gave Heather everything she ever wanted, so she became a spoiled brat, then as an adult she couldn't deal with getting anything less. She more than likely truly believed that this Peter was Steven. This man didn't stand a chance. Add in whatever damage was done when she took those drugs, they were still in her system while she was in Roselawn."

"The studies aren't conclusive, Audrey."

"I still don't see how they wouldn't affect a baby, especially considering the damage they did to her brain."

Elizabeth and Jason were explaining to the boys that Jason was going to be living with them and that they were getting married, but all Jake wanted to do was play with Jason's hand and Cameron just wanted to know when they were eating lunch. "I'm hungry mommy, can Jason move in after dinner. I want to eat."

Jason picked up the youngster and said "Well, I have my bike, so why don't we go downstairs and you can sit on it with me while we wait for the car to take us to Kelly's."

"Okay, but it can't be too long." He said firmly. "My stomach is talking to me again."

Looking at Elizabeth, Jason just hugged him. "We had better hurry up then. Elizabeth let's make sure your grams is come as well."

Going out the door, they saw that Audrey was talking to Monica and invited both women to the diner. Seeing Carly coming down the hall, Jason suggested that they hurry when the blond called out. "Jason, I need to talk to Elizabeth and you for a minute."

Elizabeth sighed then seeing the tears on the woman's face realized she had found out what had happened to Courtney. Jason was just annoyed; Carly did not seem to be getting the message.

"We only have a few minutes; we are taking the boys to eat." Said Elizabeth firmly while handing Jake's hand to Audrey and Cameron was walking with the guard.

"Fine, I just left something at the hub for you two. I just wanted to say I am sorry, Jason."

"Sorry. The problem is Carly, you are always sorry afterwards. You have no idea the damage you almost did and I think that other than how it affects me you don't care. Well, I am done. No more, Carly. I won't let you hurt my family anymore." Elizabeth realized Jason was more upset about the day than Carly but knew the blond had pushed him one too many times.

"Your family?" She asked unable to help herself. She was regretting asking even as she found herself asking "What about Michael, Morgan and I we are your family too."

"You're right." He said then seeing her smile he continued. "Morgan is my godchild and Michael is my nephew. But Carly, that is all. You just don't get it do you. I can't deal with this anymore. Elizabeth keeps telling me that if you see I am serious you will change, but I told you last year to stop, instead you still kept interfering."

"I haven't, I promise."

"What about calling the boys bastards? Slapping Elizabeth?"

Carly felt her mouth moving but no words were coming out, she stopped to think and then said "Jason, I am sorry."

"No, Carly you are sorry you got caught. Otherwise that apology would have been to Elizabeth. We are out of here."

Watching them go, Carly saw the sad look in Alexis' eyes and wanted to snark at her about Sam, but just walked away instead. She had no more energy left.

Alexis saw her daughter leaving while at the same time saw Mac walking towards her. "Do you know where Nik is?"

"In the city, he took Spencer and the girls up there to see some old friend of his. Why?"

"Janine Matthews, technically he is her closest relation since she is Spencer's grandmother."

"What about her?"

"She just died, needed a transplant and didn't have the medical insurance to cover it, she apparently went to Corinthos and he told her no."

"I wish I could bring myself to feel sorry for the woman." She said idly. "Mac, do you ever wonder what would things would be like here if Sonny Corinthos never came to town?"

"I don't believe in what ifs. They hurt too much." He said. "Alexis go home and get some sleep. Things will feel better tomorrow."

"At least you didn't say they would be better." She said ironically. "Mac, am I responsible for taking care of Sam's body?"

"Not that I know of unless you want to be, why?"

"Can you make arrangements to bury her in a city grave." She said before walking away and not seeing the transplant team rushing the heart to the helipad. Mac did and wondered if this girl would make better use of it than the woman who had had it before her. He certainly hoped so.

Jason was carrying dessert into the house, while Elizabeth was trying to convince Jake that he couldn't sit on the porch swing just yet. She wanted to get him out of the spaghetti stained clothes but he was insisting on joining Cameron.

Going back onto the porch, he picked up Cameron while Elizabeth held the wiggly spaghetti stained two-year-old. "Jason, are you really staying forever and ever?"

Jason sat on the step and looked him in the eyes and said "Yes, forever and ever. I love you and your brother."

"What about Mommy, do you love mommy?"

"More than life itself." He said looking at Elizabeth who was smiling softly back at him.

Reaching out with his hand, he took both of hers and said "First, last and always."

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jeff knew that it was going to be a rough day when he opened the door to his suite and was slapped across the face by the DA. "Miss Davis, welcome, would you like a cup of coffee?" He asked snappily.

Alexis stormed into the suite and said "How do you know who I am and then I want you to explain to me how you ended up adopting my daughter."

"What are you talking about?" He said as he went over to the window.

"Elizabeth, you do recall her don't you? The daughter you adopted and then abandoned for almost fifteen years." She snapped at him.

"Your daughter?" He asked stunned. Jerome had described his girlfriend as beautiful and wild, this buttoned up woman looked like she would blow a fuse if someone didn't turn a light off when leaving the room.

"Yes, my daughter. How did you end up with her? My family told me that I had a son and he died, then I found records that proved I have a girl."

"That would be where Sam McCall turned up, right?" He said sitting down when she finally sat on one of the chairs. "Well, all I can tell you is that Julian came to me to hide his little girl. I accepted Elizabeth and he set up the trust fund and paperwork she was to receive on her birthday from him."

"Why did he come to you?" She asked.

"I had left Port Charles with my son after a nasty court battle and Julian was shot about that time. I saved his life and we spent some time talking, he mentioned a girlfriend who he loved but couldn't introduce to his family."

"He never told me about his family, I did research about them last night." She said. "His sister Olivia was a piece of work and I know about Victor. How did you know I who I was?"

"I was at GH yesterday, along with my former sister-in-law, Ginny Webber."

Ginny entered the police station and saw Laura talking to Mac Scorpio about releasing her late son. Tracy had agreed that Luke and he should be buried together. Seeing Scott as well, she walked up to them and said "Commissioner, we met yesterday at General Hospital. I am Ginny Webber."

"Dr. Webber, what may I do for you?" He asked.

"I would like you to arrest Scott Baldwin for Rick Webber's murder. Here, all the evidence you will need." She said handing him the report her private eye had written. "I would also like Leslie Lu Spencer charged as an accessory after the fact. She was aware of this and kept it quiet. Your daughter and Logan Hayes tried to blackmail his father, which is in the file as well."

"Ginny, she is MY daughter; she lied trying to protect me." Said Laura stunned at the cold manner with which she had laid things out. "She just lost her father and brother for god's sake."

"And YOUR brother, you do remember Mike, has spent the last few years wondering why Rick died. If anyone in your self-absorbed, egotistical family had bothered coming to me, we might not be here. But Jeff and I both decided that we want the truth to come out."

Walking away from the woman, Ginny approached Agent Raynor and said "I understand that the young man you have listed as Peter Taylor took his own life. I have information you need to know about the case."

"I was doctor at Roselawn for two years. While there I had a janitor fired for sleeping with a patient. We didn't have a name just a grainy photo from the cameras. His name was Michael Corbin, I believe that you will find he is more than likely the biological father. I don't know how to find him."

"I do." Said Mac. "We can get a swab for a test. Thank you, Dr. Webber."

"Good day." She said then watched as a detective arrested Scott and told Laura that it would be best if Lulu turned herself in. With a slightly cheerful step, she walked out of the station and left to go and find Lesley. She didn't want this Lulu to go to jail, she just wanted to give the young girl a wake up call that being a Spencer didn't make her above the law.

Elizabeth woke up to the sound of giggles. "Jason, we have to be quiet." Said Cameron as he snuck into his mommy's bedroom.

"Really, because I think that Mommy is only faking being asleep." He said while avoiding Jake who had sat down in the middle of the floor and was now playing with his toys.

"Mommy." She heard as she pretended to sleep while Cameron shook her arm. "Mommy is you not really sleeping?"

Giggling softly she pretended to snore then felt the light touch of Jason's hand as he moved closer.

"I guess we will have to just eat all this food for ourselves, Cameron." He said setting it down next to the little boy.

When Elizabeth heard them start eating, she sat up and said "Are my men eating my breakfast without me, is that any way to treat your mommy?"

"MOMMY!" Shouted Cameron, "You're awake. We made you breakfast, I helped. Jake just ate the food but he tried to help."

As Elizabeth settled back on her pillows and the boys and Jason joined her, she hugged them, and then kissed Jason as Cameron said that the food was getting cold.

"I think it is rather warm in here myself." Said Jason as he gave her another kiss feeling light-hearted until he saw the gown hanging on the back of Elizabeth's closet. "I will make sure that that goes back to Carly today."

"Let's talk about it later, for now, lets enjoy the time with the boys." She said.

Alexis stood outside her office with Jeff Webber when Jason showed up. Nodding at the man, he ignored Elizabeth's adopted father and asked Alexis what she wanted.

"I did some calling around and I know what Coleman was using to blackmail Sonny." She said.

"Elizabeth, is with Diane and Mac, they are working on her official statement."

Jeff signed the paperwork and called Steven to tell him that the body would be cremated along with Alice. Seeing his daughter with the police commissioner join them, Elizabeth evaded him and go straight to Jason's side.

Once they were all in Alexis' office, she asked Elizabeth for a minute outside. "Alexis, things are a little too raw and I don't like you very much right now." She replied candidly.

The attorney swallowed her sob and sat down. Looking down at the papers on her desk, she pretended to read so she could get control on her emotions then said "This morning, I was talking to Dr. Webber and he gave me some news."

"Elizabeth, your biological father set up a trust fund for you that you would have received on your twenty-first birthday. Did you receive that?"

"No, I knew nothing about it and I don't think Grams did either."

"She didn't, I called and talked to her about it." Alexis had also asked if she would be upset if she were in her daughter's life. After being shocked, Audrey had replied that it would take time to forgive her for what she had done to Elizabeth in the name of her fake daughter.

"How does this involve Corinthos?" Asked Mac.

"Julian also left a bank box with several items for Elizabeth. The bank shows Elizabeth entered the box a month after her real birthday. Since we know it wasn't Elizabeth, I had to figure out who it was."

Jason heard the knock on the door and saw that Jax and Carly entered looking curious as to why they were there. "Carly, do you recall Sonny setting up a bank account and a safety deposit box for you at Sun Trust National before he faked his death?"

"Yes, he said it was in case they froze his accounts."

"In truth, he wanted to use you to rob the bank vaults. Elizabeth the account set up by Julian for you was there. Sonny didn't know that you were the heiress in question, but he knew that one was about to come of age and that they could take away his power. My guess is that if he knew that it was you he would have made a play for you, not wanting to lose that power."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Carly disgusted at even the idea of Elizabeth and Sonny.

"Elizabeth is the biological daughter of a man named Julian Jerome, the former head of the Port Charles mob, when he died, Frank Smith came to town claiming to control his territory. But Julian hid the real deeds for the waterfront. We found that paperwork as well as a set of fakes at Luke's club; he was the one who somehow stole it from Coleman."

"So how is it that Elizabeth is involved and why would Sonny care?" Asked Carly.

"Victor Jerome left all of his money to Julian whose will left it to Elizabeth, cutting out his sister Olivia. Picture Claudia, but better dressed." Said an entering Anna.

"So why would Sonny care, again?" Asked Carly

"Sonny has been running a paper empire and if the truth came out the families would have destroyed him. Elizabeth's bank box had all the papers, but Sonny went in and stole them. He had to use a young woman to get to them. But all they needed was the right birth date and Jerome's name, We have the video, Sun Trust keeps photos of the last time anyone accesses a high security vault. Carly, recognize anyone?" Asked Alexis showing her the picture of Courtney along with her brother.

"Courtney stole Elizabeth's trust, why?" Asked Jax.

"We may never know the reason she helped him, but she did. She went to the bank twice, the first time she posed as Carly and somehow got the second key to Elizabeth's box, then later she went back with Sonny and accessed that box. See, they needed they needed both keys, which are the same. They must have copied the bank's key somehow."

"She then opened her mouth to Coleman, telling him that she helped her brother. Coleman who wanted something to hold over Corinthos, somehow got a hold of the papers along with the proof that Courtney wasn't the true heir. He has been using them for protection every since. Two weeks ago, they were stolen."

"Max Giambetti, but something led him to Elizabeth." Said Jason. "Cody said that Max was working on a special project for Sonny, but that midway through, he called him and asked that he protect Elizabeth. Max had no idea of the outside guards I had hired to protect my family, but Cody was."

"Jason, if Sonny knew that Elizabeth owned the properties, why not just push for the two of you to get married. I mean, it's pretty much common knowledge that you love her, I think the only ones in the dark about it being common knowledge is the two of you." Said Jax.

"Because then I would control the docks. Things between us have been tense." Said Jason sickened. "Max, knew that Sonny would order him to take her out. He was trying to protect Elizabeth."

Elizabeth shivered as she realized that his next move would have been against her sons. "What were we thinking?"

"What?" Whispered back, Jason.

Gaining strength, she said "We were so focused on protecting the boys from your enemies, we forgot that there are people who would like to kill the Spencers and that I have enemies too."

"Elizabeth, you don't have enemies." Scoffed Jeff.

"Dad, Ric Lansing, his father, Sam, Heck even Hele..." Seeing her start to panic, Jason tried to calm her down.

"What is it?" Asked Anna when she saw the young woman turn green.

"Do you realize that if Helena knew the truth, the danger our boys are in." she said turning to Jason. "She hates Alexis."

"She knows already." Said Alexis. Seeing the look on Elizabeth's face she said "She might have known all along."

After the twosome went in the hall, Carly groaned when she heard that Alexis was Elizabeth's mother. Jax thought about it and said "It makes sense in a way." Only for his wife to glare at him.

Jason took Elizabeth outside worried when she started pacing back and forth while muttering to herself. Finally getting what she was saying, Jason took her hands and said "You didn't know, you had no way of knowing that the boys were vulnerable to someone like her."

Looking up, she angrily placed her hands on her hips and said "Jason, unless I had a lobotomy, I should have remembered her hatred of the Spencers. Stop trying to apologize for my mistakes. This is all on me."

Jason wondering what she would do if he told her that her anger was making him wish they were home in bed, when he saw her slow smile and then heard. "Jason, don't you dare look at me like that here, do you want to get us arrested."

"Are you finished being mad at yourself?" He asked as they walked back in to the office.

"For now. So what have we missed?" Elizabeth knew that it would take time, but she also knew that hindsight was great, but the simple fact was that no one had known any of this.

"Diane is going to have to file the deeds, but I would suggest waiting until after the two of you get married tomorrow."

"We aren't getting married tomorrow." Said a blinking Elizabeth. "We are planning on getting married in August."

"Then why did I receive an invitation to your wedding at the Metrocourt?" Asked Alexis.

"We got one too." Said Mac. Anna said Robin did too.

Turning to Carly, Elizabeth saw she had turned white and said "Well, it was a mistake. I have no intention of EVER getting married at that hotel."

Diane who was reading through the papers let out a small chuckle and said "You might want to consider it since you own the land underneath it."

"What?" Asked Jax.

"The Jerome's bought the hotel when ELQ went bankrupt back in the eighties. Hate to tell you this, Jax but your very pretty building is on her property."

Anna chuckled softly at the look on Carly Jacks face. "The Jerome's own pretty much all of the docks, a really nice cabin in the Adirondacks and some old mansion just outside of town. In fact if you are looking for a more secure place to move, that might not be a bad place to live. It was practically impenetrable the last time I tried to break in there."

Seeing the look on Elizabeth's face, she said "Duke worked for them. I just wanted to try my skills against it."

Elizabeth saw the shadow crossing her face and knew that she was thinking about her late husband. "What about Lucas, why didn't anyone think about Lucas inheriting all of this?"

Taking a deep breath, Anna replied. "Because Lucas isn't you brother, he is Robin's."

Seeing the shocked expressions, Anna said "Bobbie accessed his DNA to test against yours. When they didn't match, she redid the test using Robin's. He is her brother and Robert's son."

Telling them that Robin was telling her dad even as they were speaking, Anna refused to answer any more questions.

"But why didn't Sonny think of using him?" She asked.

Jason wondered at first then said "Julian specifically left it all to his daughter, right Diane?"

"Yes, so that means you, Elizabeth. Even if Lucas had been your brother, it wouldn't have changed anything. But there are about what, eight years between you?"

"Less than that. More like five years." Said Mac.

"So he set this up and then died before learning of Lucas." Said Jax.

"He set part of this up when he faked his death." Said Anna. "Sonny would have already been working for Frank Smith."

"Well, Elizabeth, we need to come to some sort of an agreement." Said Jax while Carly growled.

"Just have an attorney create some paperwork and I will sign it." Said Elizabeth stunned to realize just what was going on. "Jason, we should have Diane do the same for you as well."

"No, I think it might be better if the two of you take advantage of Carly's overreaching eagerness and get married tomorrow." Said Diane. Seeing the looks on her two clients, she said "The sooner you two get married the quicker this could be resolved."

Jason got what she was saying, but didn't want Carly involved at all. He could tell Elizabeth agreed with him, but told Diane they would talk about it later as the crowd started to disperse, Harper entered the room. "Mac, we rushed those results like you wanted."

Reading he said "Peter was Mike Corbin's son."

No one was really surprised but Carly as they all went their separate ways. Elizabeth hesitated then went over to talk to her father. "When are you leaving town?"

Looking up, he saw that she treated him no differently than she had the police commissioner a few minutes before, then admitted she might have been friendly to Mac than to him.

"I was hoping to spend some time with you. But I do understand, you know, I do love you, no matter what, please believe that." He said before leaving to make a quick visit with Audrey. He could leave the adoption papers with his stepmother.

When they were back at the coffee shop, Diane sat down the Jason while waiting for Elizabeth and gave him the bad news. When Elizabeth entered he explained it to her. "Elizabeth, there is no easy way to tell you this but Diane thinks you need to talk to Johnny Zachara when he returns tomorrow."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because you own a good part of the Zachara territories as well." Said the woman.

"The stuff that Skye left to Ric?" She asked.

"More than that, Anthony Zachara was cousins with your biological grandfather Victor. Anthony's power came from his death."

Seeing Elizabeth wry smile, Jason asked what was up?

"So, besides being related to the Cassidines, who tried to kill me, Anthony is my relation and tried to kill me as well. And we were worried about the danger from you. Maybe you should be worried about the danger from Helena, Anthony, heck even Alexis has killed someone, even if she missed Helena and took out Miss Belle the first time."

Hearing a gasp, she saw the woman in question standing in the doorway. "Elizabeth, how did you know about that?"

"Luke, and a bottle of bourbon, need I say anymore."

"No, look, there are a few things we need to discuss. I resigned today from the DA's office."

"Because of the Sam thing?" She asked.

"No, my own past. Molly's father worked for the mob, Kristina's father ran it and yours helped bring it to Port Charles. The press will love reporting on this."

"Not the Port Charles Herald." Said Diane cheerfully. "Elizabeth owns part of that as well. Explains why Sonny has been getting such good press the last few years."

"Diane, it might be easier to tell me what parts of PC I don't own." Said the annoyed nurse. "Now explain to me why you are insisting on Jason and I getting married so quickly."

"Simple, the families aren't going to be too happy when they realize the power base that Jason now has."

Jason looked confused as well, but Alexis who got the politics of it said "Jason, you might not want to think of yourself as a Quartermaine but you are. Add that to controlling the two territories you now do, with the money and power that comes with marrying Elizabeth, there are going to be lots of people not very happy with this marriage."

"The other thing is there are going to be people also a little too happy that the two of you are getting married." Said an entering Anna. "Elizabeth, you are going to hear lots of things about your dad and Duke Lavery, I wanted to straighten them out before the rumors get too wild."

"Did my biological father kill your husband?" She asked baldly.

"Yes and no." she said slowly. "Julian set it up to look like he did it before he went into the witness protection program. The WSB had him for a few years. I am going to try and track him down, but Robert thinks he is dead. More likely, Robert wishes he were dead."

"Cheryl?" Asked Elizabeth as the others stared, none had any idea what they were talking about.

"Only partly. There was more to it, By the way, Duke did die, but because Olivia found out that they were faking his death and killed him for real. By the way Robin is waiting for you outside."

Carly was walking around the hotel talking to herself when she saw Maxie Jones talking to Kate and Olivia. Seeing the younger girl leaving, she approached the magazine mogul who said "How are you? I heard that they caught the killer."

"Yes, look, can we talk for a minute?" She said.

Sitting down, Carly explained what they had learned that day and Olivia sat there shaking her head. "I recall that name, Julian Jerome. Dark haired mobster with a killer smile and dark blue eyes."

Carly looked at her and said "We also need to talk about Dante." She had seen a picture of Olivia's son and saw he looked a lot like Sonny, putting it together she got a kid that Sonny never knew about.

Kate held her breath, then said "Leave Dante out of this."

"I would, but you do realize that Sonny's estate is going to end up in Elizabeth Webber's control. Our children will get nothing."

"I should have known." Carly turned and saw Elizabeth standing there with a garment bag and Robin.

"Carly, is that all you can think about, money?" Asked Elizabeth. "I don't want Sonny's money. I do want to know the truth about what he did and what that bitch of a sister of his did. I felt bad for Courtney dying, but learning what we did today, I don't feel a bit of guilt at her dying. I came to return this; I don't want a thing from you."

"Elizabeth, I chose that gown, not Carly. If you don't want her involved, at least let me find you a different dress." Said Kate.

Turning Elizabeth saw she seemed to be honestly offering her help, so she nodded an agreement. Then looking at Carly said "Sonny's estate is going to stay the same, all I am claiming is the items my father left to me. By the way there is a list of jewelry in there. I recognize some of the pieces. You have twenty-four hours to return them, they are Jerome family heirlooms and Sonny stole them."

Carly took the list and started cussing, looking up at the sound of their disgust said "That bastard, he pretended he went looking for these especially for me. He claimed this one set was created for me in remembrance of Morgan's birth and our remarriage."

Elizabeth knew the set in question and said "He was partly telling the truth, those items were created for Alexis in celebration of my birth, since he couldn't give them to her, he left them to me.

Elizabeth and Robin followed Kate up to her office as Olivia and Carly dissed Sonny while following them. The young doctor not saying a word in defense of her old friend, she had been shocked to learn what he had done, and Anna's speculation that he would have killed Elizabeth was weighing her down.

Kate asked before placing a call to arrange for some dresses, "So what are you looking for in a wedding dress?"

"Simple lines, ivory since white isn't such a good idea. Long skirt if possible."

Calling, Kate then escorted her down while Olivia and Carly followed like vicious puppies as they were now moving on to Sonny's other less than stellar habits. Kate wondered about shutting the door in their faced but Elizabeth seemed to be staring at them like they were cheap entertainment and shaking her head.

Finding a few dresses that looked like they might work, Robin and Kate helped Elizabeth change into a few of them. One that they liked was too tight on her hips, so she walked down the false runway in the dressing room to prove her point.

Robin saw a dress with lots of ruffles and feathers with a deep strapless front and insisted on Elizabeth trying it on. Even Olivia and Carly stopped their character assassination to laugh along with the other three when they placed the matching headpiece.

"You look like a frickin bird. Kate who would wear something like that?" Asked Olivia while Carly snuck a picture wanting to embarrass Elizabeth. An hour later, Elizabeth had tried on all the dresses in her size not wanting to offend Kate, but she still didn't find anything she liked.

"I feel like I am back in the nightmare of Deception. I hate being a Barbie doll." Moaned Elizabeth.

"There is one last dress." Said Kate with dancing eyes. Robin and she had found it first thing, but the dark eyed doctor had wanted to relax a bit and thought that Elizabeth might have a little fun with the modeling.

Holding out her arms, Elizabeth went into the back area and took off the latest creation of an insane teenager and went to unzip the bag. Shocked, she saw the simply cut Vera Wang with some small pearls along the skirt and a v-neckline with long sleeves.

Perfect." Said Kate. "We need to hurry; Robin is wanted at the hospital."

Elizabeth showed her friend the dress and they both knew it was the perfect dress. Wondering at the quiet, she listened as Kate explained getting rid of Olivia and Carly so that she could try on this dress without their knowledge.

Walking to the mirror, Elizabeth looked at herself and saw herself. "Thanks, Kate."

"You welcome. Now I have to get back to work, your husband had my two assistants fired, so I am breaking in a new one."

Robin helped her remove her dress as they talked, Elizabeth felt slightly bad for Maxie's family but thought that the younger girl had gotten what she deserved. Lulu had never taken the job seriously and Elizabeth knew that someone would find her another job, hopefully one better suited to her skills.

Arriving home, she saw Jason was setting the boys up at the table and pulling takeout food out of containers when she walked in the door. Kissing her, he said. "Monica and your grandmother are on their way over, so we have about a half-hour."

While the small family ate dinner, Elizabeth listened as the boys described their day for them. Jake mainly kept saying the word Daddy and Cameron telling them about all he had done.

Seeing the look on Jason's face, Elizabeth waited until everything was cleaned up to approach him about it. "Jason, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said with a smile before pulling her into his arms.

"I know you better than that please tell me."

Jason didn't want to admit it, but hearing Jake asking for Lucky seared his soul. And he had no intention of adding it to the guilt that Elizabeth was already feeling.

When Elizabeth saw Jake reaching out for Jason and calling him daddy, she said "I think you son wants you."

His control breaking when he saw the smile on Jake's face as he kept saying daddy, Jason replied slightly bitter. "No, he wants the man he has been calling daddy, Lucky."

As comprehension dawned, Elizabeth closed her eyes and said "No, he is asking for you. I told the boys even before Lucky died that he wasn't their father. Cam has been calling him Lucky for a few months and Jake follows whatever Cam does. When he learned you are Jake's daddy, he taught him to call you daddy. Didn't you see that last night?"

"What?" He whispered.

"Jake, last night, when he wanted you, he called you daddy." She said with a soft kiss to his check. "Now go find what your son wants and spend some time with him.

Stunned, Jason went to pick up Jake and took the offered toy, feeling tears when he realized he had been talking to him. Jake touched his dad's cheek.

"Jason, why is you crying?" Asked Cam. Sitting down on the sofa, Jason pulled the toddler to one side and picked up Cameron.

"I am just very happy that I have all of you, here with me." He said kissing the top of the five year old's head. "I love all of you and have for so long."

"We love you too." Said Elizabeth before going to let in Monica and Audrey. Instead Laura was outside. "Elizabeth, do you have a minute?"

Elizabeth felt bad for the blond, turning to Jason she said we will be on the porch. Walking out she asked Laura to sit.

"Thanks, I won't talk long. I just need your help. Luke and Lucky are going to be buried tomorrow. The service is going to be at three. I won't expect you there, but if you come, it might be nice. Lulu was arrested today. Mom said you knew about it."

"I got a call from her, then said I would see about asking Diane to represent her."

"Alexis is going to do it. She told me that she was your mother. I'm glad in a way; you need someone strong like her in your life. I know about Sam and the whole story from Alexis. That is why I am here. Some unsolicited advice from someone who has loved you for a very long time and who has done a lot of stupid things to try and make you part of my family, talk to her. Tell her your side of the story. Take your time getting to know each other and make peace with the past. "

Hugging Elizabeth, Laura said "If you hear from your Aunt Ginny, tell her I said thank you. I figured out what she was doing with Lulu even before my mother explained. I think it might be too late to get through to Lulu but I am going to hope for the best."

"Laura, good luck. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to come tomorrow. But my heart is with Nik and you never forget that. I am sorry for your sake."

Seeing Monica and Audrey approaching, Laura hugged Elizabeth and told her that she hoped she had a good life. The two women entered the house and saw Jason playing with the boys and said "We need to talk."

Setting up the toys in the corner of the room, the adults sat down and Monica said "We think that you two need to get married now."

"No!" Said Jason. Seeing the two women glaring at him, he said "We are getting married on that day that we chose. There is a reason we are insisting on getting married then."

"Please, listen to what we are saying." Said Monica firmly.

Jason was not happy, but let them talk. "We are suggesting a simple ceremony now, then a large one on the day you chose."

"Why?" Asked Elizabeth.

Audrey thought about what Anna had said and knew that they had to keep it quiet. If they were correct, Elizabeth' father would not be pleased about what was going to happen. "We merely want to make sure nothing comes between the two of you again."

"Fine, we can do that." Said Elizabeth to Jason's surprises. Once they had ironed out the details, and left, Elizabeth explained her reasoning to Jason who laughed. "Fine, but are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I mean what could it harm." She said smiling as she went to call Robin and Patrick to see if they could baby-sit for a couple of hours.

When they returned, Elizabeth Morgan laughed as her husband carried her over the thresh hold of their home. Reaching to turn on the lights, she heard Jason groan as she brushed up against his arousal. "Don't bother." He said as he went straight for the stairs grateful that Robin had offered to keep the boys for the night.

When they had reached the midway point, they heard the sound of a baritone voice saying. "Why don't you put your wife, Morgan? I don't think she needs to see this. Come with me quietly, before an innocent gets hurt."

Setting Elizabeth down while protecting her with his body, he heard the sound of a deep sigh then the man said, "For god's sake, I am not going to harm, Elizabeth. I just want to sake sure that you aren't using my daughter."

"Your daughter?" He asked as he came down the stairs.

Coming behind him, Elizabeth saw the face of the man on her sofa, swallowing her fear, she said "Let me guess Julian Jerome?"

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jax saw Carly sitting on their bed with a frown on her face and holding up jewelry box. Looking inside, he asked. "I thought you were putting those up for the boys?"

"I was planning on it, turns out they aren't mine." She said dryly before explaining what had happened and how Sonny had been a sleaze ball in regards to the items.

"I'm sorry. I know how much those things meant to you."

"What's worse is that they were meant for Alexis from Elizabeth's father. They are beautiful, but I even if I bought them from Elizabeth, I can't imagine ever wearing them again. Not after learning what Sonny did to get them. He lied to me so many times, but for some reason this one really hurts, you know. He gave me these when we got back together, after Lorenzo and the mess with Sam."

"So what now?"

"I give these and a couple other items to Elizabeth, then find a way to deal. She returned the dress I arranged for her." She said while closing up her locked jewelry box. "I screwed up and there is no way to fix it this time, Jax."

"I know." He said pulling her into his arms and holding her while wondering if talking to Elizabeth might help. They had a meeting this week about the hotel, hopefully she would agree to at least listening to him.

"We have to attend the memorial tomorrow, but I don't want to." Whispered Carly going to get dressed for bed. "I have to check in on Mike he must be ruined."

Julian looked at his daughter and saw the fire in her eyes. "You look a lot like your mother."

"Well, you just lost what little ground there was for me to give. Alexis Davis and I don't get along and don't call her my mother."

Looking down, Julian said "So I heard. Elizabeth, she has had a hard life, You have no idea what it was like for her growing up a Cassadine."

Laughing ironically, she said "Strangely enough, I do understand. My friend Nik is her nephew and obviously my life has been a picnic, daddy dearest."

Julian wished he had done more than look at the photos, but when Raynor had mentioned his daughter was around Jason Morgan he had panicked. He had arrived earlier but tailed them when they had gone to get married. He had known that interrupting the ceremony would blow up in his face, so he had returned here and slipped in past the guards out front.

"Elizabeth, could you please go next door to see if Anna is there?" Asked Jason without removing his eyes from the man in front of him. Feeling Elizabeth squeeze his arm before leaving, he heard her footsteps fading and turned walked over to the older man and said "This is for leaving her with the Webbers," and with that he punched the man in the stomach then hit him in the jaw. "That was for not checking in on her all these years."

When the man started to get up, Jason waited until he was on his feet then hit him again, making sure to blacken his eye. "You don't get to show up here now, where were you when she was abandoned by the Webbers, when she was raped and the Spencers used her to repair their son. Where were you when she suffered her miscarriages or when she was in a coma?"

Anna was glad the boys had distracted Elizabeth. Seeing Julian as a bloody mess gave her a bit of satisfaction but she knew that she had to stop this. "Jason, stop!"

"No, he came in here... after all this time... how dare you..." Jason was furious, in part because he knew that he saw himself in the man standing in front of him. This could have been Jake and him if things hadn't straightened themselves out.

Elizabeth walked in and felt guilty, a part of her knew that Jason had just wanted to get rid of her so that he could hit him. Going to the closet she pulled out her first aid kit and said "Let me see your hands."

Julian sat on the fireplace hearth not wanting to get blood on the furniture watching as his daughter checked over her husband's fists. At least he had the answer to his question, Jason Morgan loved his daughter, and only a man in love would be offended at the absence in his daughter's life instead of the question he had asked.

After making sure that Jason's hands weren't hurt, Elizabeth looked at Julian then said to Anna. "Am I safe?"

Seeing how offended he was, Anna laughed and said "I think you would be safe, but you know you could just send him to the hospital."

"Then they would want to know what happened, This way; he is taken care of. How did you get here?" She asked while walking over to Julian. She didn't see much of a resemblance to herself except maybe the eyes, but she could definitely see one to Johnny Zachara.

"So, I guess it is true, you are related to the Zacharas." She said as she cleaned him up.

"How do you know about that?" He asked through his swollen lips.

"You look a lot like Johnny, Anthony's son."

Closing his eyes, he said softly to Jason who had moved closer like he was protecting Elizabeth "Please tell me that Anthony hasn't seen her."

"Well he had me at gunpoint and wanted Jason and I to jump to our deaths, so I would say he has done more than seen me." She sniped at him.

"Oh god." He said. He was well aware of his cousin's insanity. "Is this Johnny like his father?"

Jason thought about it then replied. "No, he isn't. His daughter Claudia was though."

"Was?" He asked thinking of his own sister and her determination to run things and how it had cost the people he had loved through the years.

"She died last week." Was all that Jason said. "How did you find us?"

"Raynor, he has been using me as a cover for a last few years. I was supposed to go in WitSec but he got me seconded to him. Bastard wanted me to come here and take you out. I got away from him then called in a favor from an old friend. Raynor is facing charges for illegally using me."

Jason shivered knowing that was what Raynor had intended for him.

"That would be the call to Sean Donnelly." Said Anna thinking about Sean's call minutes before warning her so that she could keep Robert in control.

"He was the one who decided my usefulness was at an end." Julian explained to his daughter. "I didn't intend to leave you permanently with the Webbers after visiting when you were about six. I came back here thinking to find Lucas, but the agency caught me. I had planned to get both of you out of here, but things went wrong."

"Why didn't you tell Sean about your daughter?" Asked Anna.

"I was trying to protect her from the dangers in my world." He said looking on as Elizabeth shook her head and gave a wry smile at Jason.

"He would have never have let things fall out the way he did." Noted Anna knowing that Sean had believed Lucas was safer with Bobbie and Tony, but if he had known about Elizabeth, things would have been much different.

"I couldn't take a chance. Raynor came to me and that was the first I heard of anything involving Port Charles. I was under the impression that Elizabeth was safe in Boulder. I knew things were tense, she was at least safe if not happy. I thought she would get the key, come here and then return home."

Julian left soon after, Jason ordering his men to watch the former gangster who was going to the Metrocourt for the night. Turing to Elizabeth he said "Here I thought our wedding night would go a little differently."

"Well, the boys are down next door, Anna is dealing with finding out about Julian and we are alone. Now where were we?" She asked while winding her arms around his neck as he wrapped her legs around his torso to carry her up to bed.

As the various residents gathered for the services at the Queen of Angel's church, Jason and Elizabeth along Diane were meeting with Roy DeLuca when Cody entered. "Max's father is on the phone."

The elder Italian thanked Jason and Elizabeth for their condolences then asked about what was happening with what Sonny had done?"

"This goes back to the Jerome and Smith families." Explained Diane. When she got to the part where Max found the papers and took them from Coleman, she was interrupted.

"This was the same night the bar owner was killed, correct?"

"Yes, Max somehow made the connection that Elizabeth was the heir a couple of weeks before that though. How we don't know." Said Jason.

Looking at the young woman, Max's father said "My son called me last month asking about Victor. I was under the impression it was for Mr. Corinthos. I told him what I knew. That Julian had a daughter, it wasn't exactly common knowledge but he had her sent with a doctor from your small community who moved out West."

"How did he connect it to me?" Asked Elizabeth. "I never mentioned Colorado to him."

Roy thought back on what he knew and sighed then said "Elizabeth, you have long been a topic of conversation for the guards."

Milo confirmed saying "We have always wondered why Jason and you weren't together. We all know that you came here from Boulder on your own, pretty much the entire story. Why do you think you are so respected and well liked?"

Stunned, Elizabeth turned to Jason. "I had no idea." He said realizing that their love being secret had only been an illusion.

"I had no idea the guards even cared." Stated Elizabeth. "They were always friendly but never more than that."

"See that is why you should marry this one." Said the elder Italian over the video phone. "Girls like this the gold in the dross."

"I know." Said Jason looking on as Elizabeth blushed. "So Max more than likely connected things together. So Sonny shot him while Max was looking for proof that Sonny stole the docks from Elizabeth."

"Whose footsteps were found near my son's body?" Asked Maximus.

"Luke Spencer, he took the papers away from Max while he was dying. Sam McCall then entered and called 911 but left Max to die." Said Diane. "If she had stayed this might have been worse though. The police think that Luke might have made a deal with her to get away."

"She would have taken it too." Said Elizabeth grimly. Maximus asked to speak to Jason alone "Are any of the people endangering your family still alive?"

"No, we are going to be fine. What can you tell me about Julian Jerome though?"

"He will be a good father, if she lets him. As for business, he was a rat, but not by choice. It was all to protect his daughter and the young man he thought was his son."

Laura Webber Spencer stood beside her son and daughter as Luke and Lucky's photos were unveiled at the ceremony, Tracy was sitting on a pew with her father next to her, while Carly was talking to her mother. She was here for her mother and sons. Seeing Lucas enter, she approached her estranged brother and told him that she was glad he came.

"I am sorry about Sonny." Said Lucas before walking over to Lulu and giving her hug. Joining his mother, he looked around and saw the photos and asked about the dark haired woman.

"Claudia Zachara Corinthos, Sonny's last wife." Said an entering Jax. Shaking his hand, he went to talk to Alexis who seemed ill at ease.

"Will Jason and Elizabeth be here?" She was asking Monica.

"I don't know." She replied.

"No, they aren't coming." Said Nik walking over. "I got the feeling they don't think they should be here today. There was a lot of bad blood floating around them and a few of these people."

"If that was the case, most of us shouldn't be here."

Father Coates was looking through the list, sighing, He had asked family members or friends to speak for the victims and now he had some gaping holes as no one wanted to speak for a few of them. Walking around, he saw Alexis Davis, the DA had refused to speak for her ex-daughter, the same with Claudia. There was no one to speak for her, yet.

"Father Coates." Turning he saw the young man in the dark suit. "I am John Zachara; I will be doing the speaking for my sister."

"Thank you for getting back to me. Do you know Sam McCall by any chance?"

"Barely. Have you asked Nik, he was her cousin?"

"No, he wasn't." Said the man in question walking out to the vestibule. "We need to talk for a few minutes."

Walking outside, Nik made sure no one was around then delivered the message for Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Webber wants you to come over to her place tonight. Here is the address. It is in regards to your family. That is all I know."

Taking the paper, he said "Thanks" while wondering if it was a set up, he was well aware that she had been seeing Jason Morgan at one time.

Once everyone was seated, the priest began the services then asked people to speak for the victims. Patrick stood and spoke for the man who acted as his best man at his wedding to Robin.

"I only met Mitchell Coleman a few years ago, when I moved to town. I never knew his past and I do have to wonder if I did would I have ever been so friendly to him, but I was and I didn't. The man I knew helped me when I was frequently sticking my foot in my mouth."

"See I had met this wonderful woman and fell in love, but had no idea how or why to go about making sure we ended up together. Before Robin, my idea of a long relationship was breakfast the next morning." He said to the chuckles of a few. "Then we found out we were going to be parents and instead of my size nine frequently sticking itself in my mouth it was someone's size 14. Coleman, became a sounding board, relationship counselor and of course bartender while I sorted out my love life."

"When I asked him to be my best man, he was more than happy to oblige as he respected Robin and her friends who frequented his place. So, thank you, Coleman. I owe you one. Maybe two." He said with a smile before heading back to his seat.

Nik stood and walked to the front, standing there he didn't know what to say. Then looking around he saw that Elizabeth and Jason had quietly slipped into the last row. Not wanting to draw attention to them, he said "My brother Lucky died a little over ten years ago at the hands of a man named Cesar Faison. The angry, jealous bitter man, who came home, was a shell of the man he was growing to be."

Lulu looked up shocked, this wasn't what he had written down. "Lucky, was a wonderful brother, a loving boyfriend, and a loyal friend before that fateful fire. That is the Lucky I am going to chose to remember and honor. Someday, I will come to terms with the man my brother became and have peace. For now, I will honor the Lucky he was by not whitewashing the Lucky he became."

With that he sat down, Lulu was furious, but Laura reached out and squeezed his hand with an understanding smile.

Mike had sobered up this morning but was still shocked that Father Coates had asked him to speak for Sonny. He would have thought that Carly or Jason would have done so. Looking out he saw Carly holding Jax's arm and thought that the poor smuck would always be second best to his son. Seeing Jason with Elizabeth didn't bother him as much, he had always known that someday that would happen.

Looking around he saw Kate and Olivia together with a dark-haired young man who resembled Sonny. As he spoke he saw the hard look on the two women's faces as well as on Carly's and wondered what was going on. Telling Sonny he loved him, he sat down feeling like something was missing.

Everyone waited for someone to speak about Ric, but Alexis didn't move and the only other person there it could have been stayed seated as well. Mac had no good things to say about the former DA so he sat beside his daughter and kept his mouth shut.

Father Coates moved on to Luke Spencer and waited to see who would be standing up for him. Seeing his young daughter, he breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't a war between his ex-wife and Tracy Quartermaine.

"My dad, was a man with faults. He would have been the first one to admit that. But the only thing I do know is that my dad loved my brother and me. Things weren't always like Leave It to Beaver in our home, but no matter what, Luke Spencer loved us."

Wondering if she was trying to convince herself it was true, Nik felt bad for his sister when she looked at her dad's picture and said "He lived a life of adventure, loved a good cigar and a bad bourbon. Never understood the concept of staying in one place for any length of time and the idea of a true heart to heart with anyone would give him hives. But he was always willing to send you to someone who could help.

For me that was often my brother Nik or Lucky's ex-wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, dad always relied on you to save Lucky, we all did." Looking down, she looked back up at the brunette in back and said "But it wasn't your job. That was one of the last discussions I had with him, my wanting you to reason with Lucky and his saying that it was my brother's job to grow up. Elizabeth, I don't know what it will mean to you, but my dad has always wished you were his child, I think so have the rest of us."

"Mom, I don't know where to begin, dad and you had an epic adventure, one that ended much too soon as the result of others interference. I know that some part of him will always love you. Even now in death. Tracy, we gave you such a hard time, but you were good for him and he did love you as much as he possible could. You tried to get him to take better care of himself, but he was Luke. It was a concept he never heard of. For your sake, I am sorry he never appreciated what he had."

Tracy was stunned, she had almost skipped coming to this, not wanting to be pitied while everyone discussed the great love that was Luke and Laura, looking up she gave Lulu a slight smile as the girl had turned to Nik.

"Dad came to understand you, Nik. You and Alexis are the only members of the Cassadine family he ever liked. Not that he would have ever admitted it, but that was Luke for you." With that she sat down, unable to continue.

Maxie waited for Alexis to stand up and speak for Sam, but Father Coates just mentioned her name then continued the service. When it ended people were milling around, none really sure what to do next and most wanting to avoid the press outside.

Maxie was approaching Alexis when out of the corner of her eye she saw the two rings on Elizabeth's hand and growled, walking up she said "So was Sam's body even cold before you moved on with your whore?"

Mac saw Jason ready to lay into Maxie but saw Robin step up to her and tell her to apologize. "Elizabeth is not a whore, Sam was, you, I sometimes wonder about." Maxie's mouth fell open at the unwarranted attack by her cousin.

Jason stiffened and turned to the blond. "Sam and I haven't been together since before I went on trial for Lorenzo Alcazar's murder. Only in her fantasies was it even a chance really. Maxie, walk away. This is not the place for your insecurities."

"You married her; do you even care that Sam loved you?"

Hearing the gasps, Elizabeth knew that she was going to have to deal with the blond if they were ever going to have peace from her. "Yes, he did marry me. As for Sam loving Jason, she was obsessed. Something you know all about. I read the police report, Mac showed it to me wanting to know if I was back with Lucky. That lip-gloss you are wearing, it wouldn't happen to be the same one they found on his lower extremities would it?"

Turning to Spinelli, Elizabeth said "Maxie here decided to have a one off for old time's sake with Lucky. Mainly to hurt me, unaware that we weren't back together. Take a good look, and then realize something. This is the true Maxie Jones. You are just a replacement for her sister. You are supposed to love her from afar and protect her like Georgie did."

Looking back at the blond, Elizabeth said "What a waste. BJ, died to give you a heart, too bad you won't use it to realize that this young man is in love with you. Instead you play with his emotions. Grow up, Maxie before you end up like Sam, alone and desperate knowing that you are only tolerated."

"Georgie's death, you sister's death should have taught you something. Life is short, stop and think how you want to be remembered. As a shrew who thinks the world owes her something or maybe, just maybe you could try and live up to your sister's hopes for you."

With that she walked away as Maxie stood there watching everyone else watching her humiliation.

Lulu walked away, heartbroken that Elizabeth had married Jason before Lucky was even buried, but understanding that she had to move on with her life. Watching as Johnny was talking to Anna Devane, she wondered about that before shrugging it off. He had made it plain that he didn't think they belonged together. She had to accept that and move on.

Walking out the side door, she saw Ethan standing there wearing a suit with a badge in his hand. She walked over and slapped him across the face. "How could you? Do you have any idea the damage you did to my family?"

"Your father had already inflicted that damage. Look, come with me, there are a few things I need to tell you." With that he pulled her into his waiting car and drove down to the Haunted Star. Once there he showed her the paperwork and explained about Luke, Sonny and the mob.

"So my dad was planning on stealing the mob away from Sonny? He let Max die?" She asked shocked.

"Yes, there is more, but what it boils down to is your dad has been laying the foundation for this for about a year."

Looking at Ethan she asked "Did my dad really cheat on my mom with Holly?"

"I don't know. I do know that I am neither his son nor this Robert Scorpio's. This was all about trying to prevent disaster in the form of your dad taking over. We wanted Morgan to take out Corinthos but knew he wouldn't. Thanks to this nut job, things here should settle down for a good while. Come with me."

"Where?" She asked.

"Where ever we want to go." He showed her the bag with the money and explained. "I found proof that Sonny was being blackmailed. I took the money from the drop zone."

Lulu thought about what she still had here in town, then said "I promised to fly my mom back to her treatment center in Paris. Meet me there in four days."

Walking away, Lulu decided that someone had to live up to the Spencer Legacy. Looking around the Haunted Star, she decided it might as well be her.

Grabbing his bags, Ethan made sure to grab the money he had gotten from Corinthos. Looking at the papers, he decided to send them over the Internet to one of the scandal sheets. While he had no interest in what had happened, someone might be want to know that Sonny Corinthos was related to his killer.

Elizabeth and Jason finally escaped Diane's meeting and went to meet her grams and the boys at the house, where even more reporters were now waiting. Seeing Robin waving from her front porch, Elizabeth called her on the cell phone. "Your grams took the boys to the Quartermaines'. She said she would sedate Edward if she had to. Mom called and said to tell you to meet with her and the others someplace called "Nowhere" that you would know what she was talking about."

"Did the guards take Grams?"

"Yes, Aidan went as well. Jackson Montgomery got a restraining order; the press should be gone soon."

"Thanks, Robin. Sorry about this."

"Don't be. It means we have captive company for dinner since Matt, Nadine and Rebecca are stuck here eating my cooking."

"Thank god they are in the medical profession." Snarked Elizabeth as they drove away to Robin's laughter.

Stopping over at the Quartermaine's they spent part of the evening playing with the boys in the living room while Monica and Audrey talked with an upset Bobbie. Jason was helping Audrey put the boys to bed in one of the guestrooms while Elizabeth talked to the redhead.

"How is Lucas doing?"

"He is upset of course. Learning that Robert is his dad and then talking to him this afternoon, was hard on him. He still thinks of Tony that way." She said with a sad smile. "They are going to spend some time together and of course, Robin was excited as well."

"What about you?" She asked.

"I am happy for him. Cheryl was never sure, the dates made it seem like Julian was more likely the father and the blood tests did as well. But that was at the beginning of DNA testing, things were still a little rocky then."

"How are you about everything else?"

"You mean what is coming out about Luke?" She asked with a sigh. "I know its true, unfortunately. Luke went to Sonny last year and I know that he stomped on my brother's ego. Luke would have wanted to prove he could take on the big boys and win."

"Elizabeth, we have to get going." Said Jason from the doorway. Hugging Bobbie, Elizabeth told her to call if she needed anything before leaving to go and meet her new found cousin.

Johnny was standing on the deserted spot, hoping that by being early, Morgan couldn't just take him out if that was the plan.

"Drop the gun." He heard.

"I don't think so." He replied then turning saw a man who looked familiar standing there with a 9mm pointed at him. "Did Morgan send you?"

"No, he asked me to meet him here. Drop the gun, Johnny."

Anna stood aside, but rolling her eyes got into the middle of the mess. "Both of you drop your weapons, you look ridiculous."

Elizabeth heard the Brit as she arrived and chuckled while Jason just ordered his men to make a sweep of the surrounding area. Hearing the sound of several footsteps, he saw four men carrying what looked like deck chairs. Seeing them setting the chairs up, he looked at Anna who said "We might as well be comfortable. Thanks Aidan."

Seeing the man smile, Elizabeth turned to Anna and said eight chairs, "Jason, Johnny, Julian, me, you who are the rest for."

"One is for me." Said Mac entering "and the second is for Alexis."

"The last one is for me." Announced the man with the Aussie accent who glared at Julian Jerome.

"Robert, nice to see you." Said his brother while escorting Alexis into the chair. The attorney hadn't said a word since arriving; she had just watched Elizabeth interacting with the others.

"Why am I here and who are all of you?" Asked Johnny when he had sat down finally.

Elizabeth decided that she was tired of everyone messing with her life and took charge. "Since you know some but not all, I will try and introduce everyone and explain relationships, let me know if I get anything wrong."

"Okay, this is Mac, I know you have meet him. He is Robert's brother."

"I know that." Said Johnny.

"Well, did you know he used to be a mercenary?" Snapped Julian. Johnny looked a little shocked at that one.

Elizabeth started talking like no one had even said anything. "Fine, well this is Anna Devane, I think you have met her before. She is Robin Drake's mother, Robert's ex-wife, WSB agent and former police commissioner who was married to Duke Lavery. I am assuming you have heard the name."

Seeing his nod, she continued. "This is Robert, you know some of his history, but let me add on. He was engaged to a woman named Cheryl Stansbury while police commissioner, their son is Lucas Jones, Lulu and Maxie's cousin. He is also a WSB agent."

Johnny was wondering why any of this was important, but let her continue. "You know Jason, what you don't know is we are married." Hearing the comments from Robert, she glared at the man who shut up.

"This is Alexis Davis, not so much Sam McCall's mommy. In fact she is my biological mother. Gave me up at fourteen, etc. Facts known were correct, wrong daughter. Did anyone ever fill you in on the Cassadine family?"

"Murderers, who kill family as well as Spencer, got it." He said.

"Okay, well this is Julian Jerome." Seeing him look at the man he had thought was familiar, Johnny got that he was his cousin or something.

"I see you know the name. What you don't know is that he and Alexis were involved and I am their daughter."

Johnny felt his eyeballs just about fall out of his head then felt himself blushing. He had once seen the brunette out one night and she had starred in one of his more memorable dreams. The more he thought about it the more he felt himself flushing with embarrassment. "So that makes us what?"

Not liking his tone, Julian started to approach the man, but Jason figured it out. While he understood the former gangster's attitude, he also got the kid's embarrassment. Not that he liked that any better than the other thing. "Jerome, let it go, Zachara, ever have thoughts like that again and I will break your neck."

Johnny sunk into his chair when he realized that Morgan got what his problem had been. A red Elizabeth had figured it out and wondered when this had happened. Hopefully long before his relationship with Lulu became physical, she thought to herself.

"We are cousins, right?" She asked Julian.

"Johnny and I are first cousins." He confirmed. "Why are the police and the WSB here?"

Anna wanted everyone on the same page so she went through it all for them. Julian, Duke, the past, working for the WSB, what Agent Raynor had done, finally she explained to Johnny that he was there for one reason.

"If this is about my father's business, I don't want it. Never did." He said flatly. "I am quite happy where I am."

"Good, because what we are proposing could help all three of you get out of that life." Said Anna who proceeded to explain what had been discussed.

"So let me get this straight." Said Julian. "A free pass on our past. No charges ever, what about the families?"

"Raynor turned most of them. Morgan can confirm that."

"I heard this morning from Max Giambetti's father. He thinks that this is over."

"We all have to agree on this though, right?" Asked Johnny. "What about my father?"

"He stays where he is; you have nothing to worry about."

"So if I agree to this, what about the Mayor?" Asked Mac.

"He has his own problems." Said Anna. "Morgan, what do you think?"

Looking at Elizabeth, he said "Do you understand that if my family ends up in danger, I will walk away from this."

"As long as you agree that family means your immediate one, not Carly or the boys. If Michael wakes up and decides he still wants to be Sonny Jr. he isn't going to get a free pass."

"Fine, but we can't put this in writing so what guarantees do I have?"

"Your wrong about that, it will be in writing and in a sealed vault that only Sean Donnelly has keys to. You will have a copy as well."

Elizabeth held her breath know that it was Jason's choice, she would stand by him either way.

"Fine, I'm in." he said then asked "Why am I keeping Jerome here though?"

"Family ties that is all. Julian, one false move and I have permission to take you out." Said Robert.

"I never wanted this, you know that. I just want my life back." He said looking at his daughter while avoiding looking at Alexis who was glaring at him.

"So, here is to the end of the Port Charles mob." Said Anna breaking out the champagne.

"Well, sort of." Agreed Elizabeth thinking of the changes coming to their lives...

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Alexis waited until things had started to settle down, before approaching Julian. Her first lover saw her coming and turned to say something to Anna before heading her way. "Lexie."

"Ian or should I say Julian." She answered looking at the man in front of her. The same smile was there, along with the eyes that she had spent years dreaming of. But there was a hard look in his eyes now, along with strength of purpose the young man she had known never had.

"We need to talk." He said as they walked towards the various vehicles waiting. "About Elizabeth, a few other things."

"I agree; can you stop by my house tomorrow."

"I think we do this on mutual territory." He said. "So that you know, I have spent the day learning about our daughter. And the woman you thought was our daughter. As well as your behavior. Interesting reading. I also read about your younger two daughters, as well as our grandchildren."

Alexis froze then stared at Julian. "I-I, I have got to go." Getting into Mac's squad car, she waited until they were far enough away then let the tears flow, knowing that Mac would be a gentleman and wait until she was ready to discuss them.

As they pulled up to the Lakehouse, he asked if there was anything he could do?

"Build a time machine; take me back in my past to at least three years ago. I am a grandmother, you know. I had forgot that with everything else going on. I have two grandsons, and I helped make excuses for the woman who tried to harm them repeatedly. I did that same thing I used to look down on Sonny for. All his excuses for his behavior, for his family's behavior. I used to dream about the child I lost, then I found Sam, I wanted so much for her to be more like me."

"Alexis, I wish I could tell you that things between Elizabeth and you will be easy, but I doubt they will. One thing though, Elizabeth has a good heart, she won't shut you out completely. Work on accepting that, in time, she will let you in. Just be glad she is there for you to have the time to get to know her and the boys."

"You still miss Georgie, don't you?" She said gripping his hand.

"Every single day since she has been gone. I will never understand, never accept her death." He said thinking about Anna's visit that day. His former sister in law had taken the files from the case and he was hoping she would find something that they had missed. He wanted some closure for his little girl.

When they returned to the Quartermaine's, Jason and Elizabeth checked on the boys before crashing in the guestroom next door to them. As they curled up together, Elizabeth asked Jason what he thought about the offer.

"I think that they are serious in their offer, but I was already making changes when Sonny came back. When I walked away, I just gave up. I didn't have anything left to fight for." He said burying his head in her shoulder. "We wasted so much time, time we should have had together. Time, where I should have been there, helping Jake learn to walk, been there for his first word."

"Hey, even I wasn't there for that." She said wiping the tears. "Grams was."

"I am sorry, Elizabeth. You know one thing has never changed in all these years, I have always wanted this with you. I don't get why you never just hit me upside the head and walked away."

"Because, we both made mistakes. I made more than my fair share. The last one almost cost us everything."

Jason just pulled her closer thinking about how his life would have been without her, nothing but Spinelli and wiping up Carly and Sonny's messes while dealing with Sam always being around. He did feel some guilt about the last one; he should have never let her have hope, who knows what else she did or had done to Elizabeth and the boys.

Hearing quiet, he realized Elizabeth had fallen asleep so leaning down; he kissed her softly before sliding out of bed. His body was reacting to the closeness of his wife and he wanted her to get sleep, it was more important right now than making love to her.

Padding down the stairs, barefoot, Jason saw a light on in the study. Walking over he saw Edward with a photo of who he took as Lila while talking to her. "They are asleep under this roof, our great-grandsons. Cameron looks like Elizabeth. And Jake, he has your eyes. I can't help recalling that Jason was about the same age when he came into our lives."

Backing away, Jason went into the living room where he took the files and read them. Anna had made sure that he knew all there was to know about Julian Jerome. Sighing, he tossed the file down, and thought about what to do. The man had been working to take down mob families for years, partly out of guilt over the death of Duke Lavery. Jason was worried about the danger this might bring to town, in spite of their promises he knew that sometimes things happened that you couldn't control.

Edward was walking by, heading up to bed when he saw Jason get up and wander over to the picture of his brother. Seeing him pick it up, he walked away knowing that whatever was on his mind, Jason would not share it with him.

Jason looked at AJ and thought about Michael. Would it have been so wrong to let him into his son's life? Carly had convinced him so at the time, but what if she had been given legal backup without his lying. Would AJ have turned on her or would he have worked out something in regards to their son? At the time, he had thought AJ the worst thing for the boy, now he knew that Sonny and the world they inhibited was.

Thinking on Drake's comment that it might be possible with the new surgical procedure for him to wake up, Jason couldn't help remembering Michael's stated goal of becoming like his father. What where they going to do if he tried? Even with the new deal, someone somewhere in some family would offer him a job, if for no other reason than to screw with things here in town.

Knowing he wasn't going to solve the riddles of his life that night, Jason went upstairs and was soon back in bed with his wife. When she turned towards him and ran her hand down his chest, he groaned thinking it was going to be a long night if Elizabeth kept molesting him in her sleep.

Controlling her breathing, Elizabeth became a little more daring as she moved her hand further south and wrapped it around his growing hardness. Hearing his breath catch at the same time as he tried to capture her questing hand, Elizabeth let out a soft giggle.

"So you want to play..." he said softly while pulling her on top of him. "What do you have in mind?"

"How about Mommy is in charge and daddy has to do everything she says." She said while wiggling her eyebrows.

"Sounds good to me." He said before lifting his head and taking her lips into a deep kiss. "So just what does Mommy want?"

Edward, who was still wandering the halls trying to find a reason to fall asleep, smiled at the sounds coming from the guestroom, hopefully someday soon they would learn about another grandchild on the way.

Anna was up late into the night reading the files, and making notes, when she saw the beginning of daylight, she showered and stopping to grab Julian from his hotel room and calling Robert she insisted that they all needed to work on this together.

Going into the old Outback, she said "This place brings back memories."

"Why is he here?" Asked Robert when he joined his ex-wife, brother and some detective who were waiting.

"I need his help. So stuff it, Robbie." She said. "Mac, Spencer screwed this investigation up from the beginning. Why was he allowed to even be there when you investigated Emily's death?"

"He wasn't supposed to be, but Cruz kept letting him switch with him on the case. It's why he is now working primarily on cases with the County." Said Harper. "I had to repeatedly pull Spencer back, but I also have to admit after a while even I started to see the mob connection."

"Then you might want to go back to detective school." Said Robert. "You were being influenced by Spencer's hatred for Jason Morgan."

"Let that go for now. Mac, I did some checking, Leticia Juarez's murder, while similar to Georgie and Emily's was only that, similar. I think you had two different killers on your hands. The second used her killing to cover up whatever he was doing. I know who killed the nanny."

"Who?" Asked Mac as he took the papers from her.

"Logan Hayes. There is a DNA match to his, I checked and he was fired for leaving the nanny and the boys alone to hang out with Lulu Spencer."

"What lab?" Asked Harper. "Ours didn't even find anything to run."

"The WSB have better equipment." Was all she said

"A lot, but I will get to that in a minute. Mac you suspected Johnny Zachara as the killer for a while didn't you?"

"Yes, he had no alibi for Emily or Georgie."

"I think that Trevor Lansing was setting the boy up. The thing is why. I think I know the answer to that one as well. He was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Getting the kid out of the way and driving Sonny over the edge."

"Why not attack Kate Howard then?"

"My guess is that someone how Carly stirred the pot, you know how she is. As for the girls, I don't find any way that their death is connected other than the MO. Diego claimed to have killed one of your officers as well, but with his earlier shooting weakening him, he wouldn't have had the strength to take on a former Marine."

"So what are you saying?" Mac asked.

"I am saying that Diego didn't kill either of them. And that I have no idea why or how they truly died. Some things aren't adding up. I have a few people I want to talk to, but Julian had a theory that I will share only if I find something to back it up. Until then, all I will say is that I hope I find the proof."

Elizabeth was arriving at the hub after taking the boys to daycare, frustrated with her husband this morning. He had gotten her all riled up then Cody called, needing him. She had wondered why he couldn't have taken five minutes to finish what he had started, only to be told with a grin, that what he had planned required a lot longer than that.

Growling when she saw the amount of paperwork waiting for her after patient's rounds, she got to work on it all the while grumbling about getting stuck with it.

"Problems?" Asked Nadine as she joined her at the hub.

"Paperwork." She answered. Seeing Anna entering just as she was going on break a couple hours later, Elizabeth knew that the super spy wanted something. Telling Nadine she would be back, she went to see what she needed.

"Elizabeth, I just wanted to warn you, I just dropped Julian off at the launch for Spoon Island. Apparently Nik is refereeing their meeting out there."

Calling her friend, she found out that her biological parents had also requested Jeff's presence. "Why there?" She asked her friend.

"This way it will be easier to hide the bodies if they kill each other." Joked Nik as he watched the three-point standoff in his study.

"Not funny, Nik." She said before hanging up. "Anna, Jason mentioned you were looking into Emily's death."

"I am, I waited until I heard you were going on break, I was hoping you had time to answer some questions."

Elizabeth answered questions from Robin's mother ranging from Lorenzo Alcazar and his son to Emily and the Ball as well as about a few other oddball subjects. When it was almost time to return to work, she asked the woman why the odd questions.

"Because something is wrong here. I had your father there and he agreed something is truly off about all of this."

"What would Jeff- you mean, Julian don't you. Are you thinking there is a mob connection to this?"

"That's just it, we don't." She replied before thanking her for her help.

Jason walked into the penthouse and saw Maxie talking to Spinelli. "What part of you aren't supposed to be here ever didn't you get?"

Jason saw the way Spinelli swallowed his fear and waited. "Stone Cold, the fair one is leaving town; I am looking into what dastardly villain had her fired. All I can locate is the name of the company that gave the Fashionista the money for her magazine. It is an unknown entity with its finger in a lot of pies."

"Spinelli, I told you two days ago that I didn't want her around. She is leaving now. By the way your villain is me. I gave Kate Howard the loan and told her that as long as Maxie was gone, she didn't have to pay it back."

Seeing the stunned looks, Jason counted, waiting for the brouhaha to being. "But Stone Cold, why would you do that to the Fair Maxa-"

"Because she has hurt my family one too many times. You need to decide, do you want to work for me or do you want to be her friend more. Because while I was willing to let it go before, I can no longer do so. I gave you an order, Spinelli. She was NOT to be here, and you ignored it."

"But Stone Cold, you should be happy, you are with your progeny now. All should be forgiven." Jason saw the look on the geek's face and realized that more had to change.

"Forgiven, who should I forgive?" He asked. "You for disobeying my orders and for making Elizabeth believe that I would ever touch one of those women you kept letting into my penthouse. Maxie, for deliberately lying to Elizabeth about my non-relationship with Sam and for coming to set me up. Too bad for her, it would have never worked. Maxie Hates MY WIFE, what part of that don't you get Spinelli?"

"The Fair one feels like-"

"I could care less; I meant what I said. Now you have to decide." He said before going up the stairs to grab more clothes.

Maxie saw the torn look in his eyes and realized that Spinelli seemed to be thinking on coming with her instead of staying with Jason. While it did her ego good, she knew that it would be a mistake. "Spin, don't decide. Stay here." She said before leaving.

Spinelli waited for Jason to come back down, when he did the geek announced. "Fair Maxie made the choice for me. I am staying."

"Fine, I will see you later at the office." With that Jason left making it plain that the younger man wasn't going with him.

Sitting there, looking around, Spinelli realized he had lost almost everything in the last eight months. "What just happened?"

Johnny entered the Gothic nightmare of a house only to hear voices raised in anger. Walking in he saw Nicolas Cassadine leaning against his desk while the man he had met the night before was yelling at the DA and another man a bit older than him. Walking over, he asked Cassadine what he wanted.

"I have to referee this, and then we have to talk. But for now, just wait." He said wincing as Julian attacked his aunt's fitness as a parent.

"Don' even go there. You are the one who left our daughter with him." She said pointing at Jeff Webber who was rubbing his chest where the sharp points of her nails had gone in.

"He was a doctor, he SEEMED like a caring father, how was I to know his wife was a nut job obsessed with having a son."

"Try asking?" Asked she said sarcastically.

"What about you, Miss DA, you are the one who has spent the last week running around trying to get Elizabeth in trouble for what? Truthfully, what? What had she done that has you so angry?"

"Nothing." Replied Alexis as her guilt ate at her.

"Nik, you know that I-" said Alexis.

"Leave me out of this. I am just here to make sure that no blood is split. Dr. Webber, I know this is the first time we have met, but I have a question, why is that?" He asked looking at the man.

"Why what?" He asked looking into the hard eyes of his daughter's friend.

"Why is it that I have known your daughter-"?

"She isn't his daughter." Snarled Alexis.

Ignoring his aunt, Nik continued. "As I was saying, Elizabeth, yet I am just meeting her father. Why did you abandon her?"

Jeff flushed and wanted to ignore the younger man, but saw the looks on the other occupants in the room and said "I love my daughter, but adopting her ruined my marriage and my family. My wife made it clear several years ago, that it was either her and our other children or I walked away from Elizabeth. She had just found out about her parentage."

"You bastard." Said Julian. For once they all agreed on something, thought Alexis.

"I did the best I could, I had two other children to consider and my wife had just found out she was pregnant. She had a miscarriage after learning the truth, what was I supposed to do. She wanted that baby more than anything." He stated.

Nik looked at the man and said "Get out of my house, what kind of man are you. She was a child, the youngest. Sarah was what, 16. Steven is even older, but you walked away from Elizabeth. Who was still a kid."

"You don't understand." He said looking up. "My wife, she needed me, Elizabeth has never needed anyone in her life. She is the most self-sufficient person I know. Even as a kid."

"Maybe because your wife and you never ever offe- you know what, I don't care. Get out of my house."

"Fine, but know one thing. I loved my daughter; I have loved her from the moment she smiled at me as a baby. I did the best I could. I arranged for money for her, I set it up for her to go to school, then for her to get her money from Julian. I did what I could."

Nik watched him walk out the door and wondered if having him pushed off his launch in the middle of the harbor was worth the charges that they would bring against him. Seeing Julian and Alexis looking at each other horrified, he pointed towards the door to Johnny and soon they were outside.

"Have you talked to Lulu recently?"

"Not since we ended things." He admitted. Last night he had gone straight to Jake's then after a run in with Maxie he had gone home wanting peace and quiet.

"She is leaving town with my mother today. But she said she wouldn't be coming back that she was going off with a friend. I know my sister well enough to know it was a male friend."

"Good for her." He said. Seeing Nik's surprise, Johnny said "I hurt Lulu and I am sorry about that, but looking back, I get that I went a little crazy with my freedom from my family. Honestly, I don't think you are going to like this, but in truth, Lulu and my relationship was a mistake."

Thinking back on Courtney, and Katherine Belle, Nik got that, but he wished his sister's heart hadn't been broken in the process. "I do get that. I was worried from the beginning, not because of the mob stuff, though I wasn't thrilled about that. But Lulu was looking for an escape and I think you were too, but word of warning, Maxie Jones is not someone you want to move on to."

"I get that; I was at that memorial service, yesterday. Maxie was a way of breaking up with Lulu, I think that my brain was trying to get my conscious to acknowledge that fact."

"How are you doing about being related to Elizabeth?"

"I barely know her." He said blushing.

Nik knew that look, after all he had been there once too. "If it makes you feel any better, she is my cousin and I tried to kiss her." Seeing the sharp turn of the head, he told him the story of his crush and what Helena had done.

"So fantasying about her, you don't think it is wrong." He asked shocked.

"Well now that you know she is your cousin, it is." He said dryly. "I do hope you never mentioned this to Morgan, though. He still loathes me for crushing on her."

When Johnny admitted what had happened the previous evening, Nik gave a chuckle then said "Are you coming to that party this evening at the Metrocourt?"

"Yes, why?" He asked suspiciously.

"I may need you help. The Webber family is going to be here, the rest of them arrive this afternoon, according to Audrey Hardy who has fled her own home to escape their wanting to stay. And you are related now, you might want to get to know Elizabeth; she is a wonderful person to have in your corner." Said Nik before walking away. Then he recalled the other thing he wanted to ask. "Zachara, are you going to tell your father about Elizabeth?"

"No, why would I? I haven't talked to him since he was tossed in prison." He said before leaving at the same time as the DA who was still fuming. Seeing her start to hyperventilate he asked "Are you okay?"

The launch captain handed her a paper bag kept on hand for just that purpose and called ahead to arrange for an ambulance as Alexis seemed to be turning blue. Calling back to the house, Johnny warned Nik who had stopped Julian wanting a word. Both men assured him they were on the way.

Nik felt like he was manipulating things, but he still called GH and asked to speak to Elizabeth.

"Alexis is on her way in, she is having severe breathing problems."

Elizabeth was walking to the hub knowing that she had to be in the ER when Monica came up to tell her. "Your mother is in the ER. I know you want to avoid her, but could you please deal with her, for my sake." Not wanting to have that woman there any longer than she had to.

Rushing down, Elizabeth saw Patrick at the hub and said "My mother is on her way in."

The blond sitting on the chair was astonished at the level of concern and said "Here, I thought you wouldn't care if I lived or died. After all why else would you embarrass this family even more than you already have. Elizabeth how dare you marry that gangster?"

'

Turning, Elizabeth saw Carolyn with her leg bandaged and Sarah with her and groaned. At least now she knew what grams message was about. She had thought the elderly woman had been talking about Alexis. "Not now, Carolyn, I'm busy." With that she went over to the ambulance coming in at the same time as Nik and the two men arrived.

"Alexis, are you okay?" She asked when she saw the woman sitting back with an oxygen mask in her lap.

"I will be as soon as these men let me out of here. You know kidnapping is a very serious offense. You can't just drag someone off to the hospital; it is against the law. I should-"

Nik walked over and hugged her saying "I am glad you are okay, but your face was turning blue. They did this for your own safety."

Glaring at her nephew, she turned to Elizabeth and said "Can you arrange for them to let me go. I just had a panic attack, that is all."

"Why don't you let us run a few tests?" Suggested Patrick.

"No, I am fine. I promise." Said Alexis as her face flushed when she realized all the people watching.

"Just let them check you out, Lexie." Said Julian ignoring the death glare she was giving him.

"Why don't you have them remove that stick you-" Alexis started to reply, but Elizabeth knew that they had been arguing so she took the mask and put it back on the woman's face. Turning to Cassius the orderly on the floor and said "Please take Miss Davis up to six and if she fights you ask Robin to give her a sedative."

Hearing her arguing the entire time she was being rolled away, Nik turned to Elizabeth and said while chuckling, "Good job."

"Thanks, now could you use your influence and have someone deal with my family."

"Care to be more specific?" He asked pointing out she had a lot of family now.

"The ones sitting in the ER; telling me how I disappointed them again." She replied before going around her guard and thanking Johnny. "They seem to feel that they have a say in my life."

"You know you have a rather burly guard following you around, I think he is more than adequate to deal with them." Suggested Patrick as Carolyn huffed and puffed.

"True, but my guard is going with me up to six where I am going to have to referee between Julian and Alexis. Or did you not notice his following Cassius up." She said sighing.

"Elizabeth Imogene Morgan how dare you ignore me?" Hissed Carolyn.

"Dr. Webber, please remember this is a hospital and act accordingly. If you are looking for your husband, he isn't here. Sarah, I am sure you remember the way out the door." Said Elizabeth as she took the stairs.

"Wha-?" Sarah started to complain as the security guard took her arm and suggested she leave the hospital. "Nik, tell them to stop. How dare they treat me this way?"

Looking at the blond, Nik said "Sarah, why don't you go home. By the way, why are you here? Who invited you?"

"No one invited us. Some reporter called and asked my poor mother how she felt about her daughter marrying the town thug and what she knew about her husband being the father of a serial killer. We had to come and straighten this out. This loser, Peter had no business claiming to be related to us. He is no more related to us than that whore trying to masquerade as a Webber, Elizabeth. I can't believe that no one told me that she wasn't my sister. The damage she has done to the Webber names."

"Seems to me she has raised it back to the level it belongs." Said an entering Monica. "Hello Carolyn, well it's true I see. Jeff mentioned that you and your shrew of a daughter were coming to town. If I were you, I would lower your voice, Sarah. You never know who might be offended with your remarks about Elizabeth."

"She is the child of some low-life gangster. Why should I care? No one wanted her and my dad foisted her off on my mother. She should have stayed were she belonged. Not try to act like her betters." She sniffed. "She is nothing more than the child of some girl who couldn't keep her legs closed, come on according to what dad said the mother wasn't even fifteen when she got knocked up. But then look at Lizzie, blood will out, you know."

Johnny had been watching and waiting, then got what he had waited for. "So you think that Elizabeth belongs with her own kind. What kind is that, Sarah? Tell me what you really think." Said Nik getting quiet.

"You know that I am telling the truth, my supposed sister is little more than trash. From a family who is nothing more than trash. C'mon, Nik, would you want her to be part of your family. Wait, she was, wasn't she." She said laughing. "She was married to poor, poor Lucky."

"Sarah, I think you need to shut up now." Said an entering Steven who saw his father slipping to the side and trying to get his wife to go with him.

"Oh shove it, Steven. Saint Steven, come on, even you have to admit that having Lizzie in the family is an embarrassment."

"No that would be you." He said quietly. Turning to his parents, he said "You too, Mother. Dad I think you need to put them on a jet for home. Either way, get them away from Elizabeth, before I decide to make their life a living hell."

"Well, I suppose since you now live in the gutter, since this killer is related to you." Snarked Sarah.

"Sarah, that is your name, right?" Asked Johnny.

Looking at the good looking but younger guy, Sarah smiled and "Yes."

"One more word about my cousin and I will introduce you to my father. He has a thing for mouthy ill-bred women like you." He replied. "Elizabeth, from what little I know about her, has proven to be a classy, caring, wonderful mother who is loved very deeply by the man you called a thug. Something to think about, if Jason Morgan is really that bad, should you be running your mouth about him?"

"How dare you threaten my daughter?" Said Carolyn, "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm sorry, let me introduce myself. I am John Zachara, Elizabeth is my cousin." Turning to Nik, he said "That is correct, cousin, right?"

"Sort of, she is my first cousin, your second. And Sarah, I won't forget what you just said about my Aunt Alexis." He saw the moment she realized her mouth had gotten her in trouble. "One more thing, weren't you the one spreading your legs for both my brother and I?"

Nadine had come down to get Nik for Elizabeth, but arrived in time to hear the blonde's rude comments. But the always-polite prince's remarks had her laughing. "Uh, Nik. Elizabeth needs you."

"Thank you Nadine. Could you please make sure that the security personnel know that the only members of the Webber family allowed in GH is Elizabeth and Steven. Thank you." With that he walked away leaving a few stunned doctors.

"Who was that man?" Asked Rebecca as she joined the crowd. "And what did he do to the Prince?"

"Funny, Emily, real funny." Replied Sarah furious at what he had said to her.

"You know I am getting really sick of being called Emily." Said an annoyed Rebecca. Turning to walk away, she gave a smirk then turned back. "Would the sweet and precious Emily do this?" With that she slapped the blond witch across the face and walked away muttering about how that had hurt her hand but mentally had felt real good.

Jason arrived at the courthouse and went into the meeting with Mac and the WSB chief. Diane handed him the papers assuring him that all was legitimate. "Are you ready to do this?"

Looking at Sean, Jason said "Yes. But I meant what I said if you go back on this or my family is ever in danger..."

"I get that. You know I only offered this deal to one other man and he didn't have the brains to take it. He was more worried about power. I am glad to be wrong. I thought you were just like your former boss."

Jason had been signing the paperwork, when what he said registered. "You offered Sonny this deal?"

"Yes, back when Luis Alcazar came to town. But he didn't want to deal with the restrictions. Didn't want to curtail the business. He said the only way he would take the deal was if we took out Alcazar. But truthfully, Luis was handy for us. He was an unstable influence in South America."

"Did you know about Brenda?"

"That she wasn't really ill, no. That she was with him, yes." He admitted. "When Alcazar came here, we tried to run interference, but suddenly Sonny was cocky, sure of himself well beyond what he had any right to be."

"That was probably when he found a way to access the Jerome fortune."

"We do have to talk about that; I had someone talk to the vault manager then. He had a tape you need to see." Replied Sean. Handing it over, he told Jason. "I was worried, I didn't know how you would take it, but Anna says you were in love with Liz Webber even then."

Jason finished signing the paperwork and left. Once at the office, he asked a very quiet Spinelli to set up the DVD and check it before running it for him. Ten minutes later, the geek said "Stone Cold, it is clean. Where do you want to watch it?"

"Here is fine." He said. "Stay I may need you to interpreted it."

Spinelli debated leaving but sat down instead. Having already looked at the tape, he grimaced but did as was requested. When Cody had entered, Jason hit play.

Jason saw the blond he had been foolish enough to believe innocent; talking to the guard. From the date on the machine, he knew it was in his mind, at the back of his memories. Going through his memories, he tried to remember why it was important. He watched as her head disappeared from the screen and then the sounds that filled the room.

Watching he smirked, she hadn't been very good at that, no matter what she thought. No wonder the man had refused to give her the key. Instead he had insisted on money.

When Courtney opened the door, he turned to Cody and asked him to lip read. "Sonny, he wants the money."

"Fine, here." Sonny walked in and sat down as the guard gave them the key. When Sonny had pressed it into the wax, he returned it and the guard left the two of them alone in the room.

"Sonny, now that I have done what you wanted, what is in it for me?" Whined the blond.

"Exactly what was on the table last time. I will get Elizabeth out of his life and you deal with AJ for me. I know what buttons to push, but the rest is up to you. I won't betray Jason that way." Jason watched as Sonny handed Courtney some thing in a small sack.

Furious, Jason saw Courtney's smile and walked over to the doorway, trying to get control of his temper. "Stone Cold, are you sure you want to see the other part?"

"Yes." He replied. When he saw the visit where Sonny and Courtney returned to access the vault, he saw the blond stick something in her pocket while Sonny's back was turned. Wondering what was going on, he soon saw that Sonny was emptying out the box then going to return it with the bank officer.

When Courtney had seen them leaving she pulled out a piece of paper. "Spinelli, can you get closer so that I can read that?"

"Already done." Said the young man quietly.

When Jason saw the birth certificate and what it read he turned to Cody and said "Find that piece of paper, I don't care what you do to get it."

"Where would she have hidden it?" He asked.

"Try that stupid loft. Carly kept it for some reason. Then go to my penthouse, tear it apart if nothing else."

Jason walked out of the coffee shop and placed a call. "I need to see you."

"I will be right there"

When they met up, Jason pulled Elizabeth into his arms and said "There was a birth certificate in that bank vault. Courtney knew; she knew that you inherited everything. She knew you were Alexis' daughter. And that's not all."

"Jason?" She asked. She could see the anger in his eyes.

"Elizabeth, I think that Courtney drugged AJ. The tape, it was dated the same night that AJ ran into the strip club. I think she used AJ and set it up. I think he was supposed to die. AJ wasn't drunk that night, he was drugged. I blamed him for what happened, but it wasn't him. It was her, she did that because she wanted me and Sonny said he would help her."

"Help her, but he didn't want you two dating." She pointed out.

"I think I was played." Everything had been out of his control, and he would never make excuses for his behavior that reeked too much of a Spencer trait. Instead he was going to find out the truth, and then he was going to have to deal with it. Because he was ultimately responsible for what happened.

He had been blind to what Sonny had been up to, what Carly had been doing. Part of him had known about Courtney, but he had wanted to believe that someone or something would put him first.

The problem was, he hadn't put Elizabeth first, and by doing so, others had used his insecurities to ruin them. But it was the past and Elizabeth and he were moving to a bright future. One that would not include those who didn't support them.

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Jason kissed Elizabeth goodbye as he drove to GH, knowing that this party tonight was not where she wanted to be. But Jax had asked them to come; they were going to sign the paperwork giving him control of the land under his hotel. But only control, Elizabeth would still own it.

When he arrived at her office, he listened as some woman was shrieking about her daughter. Entering, he saw Sarah Webber holding the side of her face and Monica just looking annoyed.

"Is there anything I can do? He asked while admiring the bruise someone had given to the acidic blond.

Sarah hadn't looked up, not wanting anyone to see her like this, but Carolyn had smiled. He was a little rough around the edges but if he was at GH, there was good chance he was either a doctor or related to one. "I was just telling Monica, I am going to press charges against her daughter for slapping my poor little girl." She said pointing at Sarah.

"Good luck with that." He said then turning he asked "Elizabeth said you needed help with something?"

"Yes, you have the keys to the wine closet and Tracy is furious." She said.

Thinking back, Jason grinned then said "Tell her I said she could have them back when she asks nicely."

Going outside with him, she told him the truth. "I need your help with Carly. She wants that experimental surgery for Mikey, but it isn't for his type of injury and she is not listening to us."

"I don't think I can reach her. I don't want to go tonight. Let alone deal with her after that. I will talk to Jax about it though. We have a meeting about the hotel."

"Another thing Edward is griping about. Jax filed suit, he has to repay the money Jax paid for the land."

Leaving, Jason walked towards lobby where he saw a rather extraordinary sight. Alexis was standing on a bench, arguing with Julian Jerome. Seeing Johnny standing nearby with Nik, he walked over and asked what was going on?

"You would not believe me if I told you." Said Nik astonished at the unusual scene playing out in front of his eyes. "They have been like this since their meeting with Jeff Webber. You will not believe his excuses for abandoning Elizabeth."

"I heard. He stopped over to see Elizabeth, gave her the same lines. Carolyn miscarried, Elizabeth's parentage, did I miss anything."

"Not about that. By the way, do you know why Rebecca hit Sarah?"

Getting the story, Jason called over and let Jax know he would appreciate his kicking them out of the hotel in return for Elizabeth and his coming to Carly's party.

Arriving at the spa, Elizabeth saw her friends getting mud treatments and declined to join them. Rebecca took off her cucumbers and said "We all can't be born with flawless skin, some of us have to work on it."

"I don't object to mud baths, I take them all the time, with Jake and Cameron." She retorted. Then added. "I hear you hit my sister."

"Shem deserred it." Was her reply as the masseuse worked out the tension of her body.

When Elizabeth went to have her hair done, she saw Carly talking to one of the hairdressers and asked to speak to her alone for a minute. "I am going to drop the suit, but I want us to come to legal understanding at that meeting tomorrow. You, our attorneys and me. Okay?"

Nodding, Carly said "We can try and find a way to peacefully co-exist in Jason's life."

"Carly, Jason's life isn't on the table. It's not either of ours to bargain with. This is about you and me." She replied walking away angry that Carly was still trying to run Jason's life.

Heading back, Elizabeth was once again struck by how much alike Emily and Rebecca were superficially and occasionally in the way they moved. Hearing Kelly and Robin joking about Diamonds being a girls best friend, she couldn't help thinking of Helena and her nice shiny rock.

At the bizarre thought going through her brain, Elizabeth couldn't resist asking Rebecca if she had a thing for nice shiny oversized rocks with names.

"No, they are really not my style." She said giving Elizabeth a weird look as the nurse laughed at herself.

"Just checking, when Helena brainwashed Lucky, she used this very ugly oversized diamond."

"Sorry, not brainwashed, either. What is up with you today?" She asked walking over to get her hair done.

Not wanting to tell her that she was imagining her as Emily. Elizabeth just blamed it on dealing with her biological parents.

"They were arguing or maybe flirting is the better word, the entire time I was taking her blood pressure, I had to ask your dad to leave." Chimed in Nadine. Looking at her watch, she said "I have got to go, Matt is my date for this thing and he needs my help getting dressed."

Anna was reading the papers again, then when Julian finally showed up, she said "Where have you been?"

"With Lexie, if it is possible she has grown more stubborn the older she has gotten."

Sitting her pencil down, she asked "They don't have much in common, Cheryl and Alexis."

"Alexis was a wild child. Cheryl, was different, it was more I was an adult and it was time to find love." He replied. "Lexie and I, I never told her about my family business but there was this attorney, who worked for my uncle. He knew about us and made it plain that it was not going to be allowed. Then her family found out about the baby and that was it."

"Trevor Lansing." She asked. You know he was the one who made it look like Sam was Alexis' daughter."

"That was his name. From what Raynor said, he died recently. As for Sam, my guess is that it was a diversionary tactic, there had to be something here he wanted. I just don't get his interest though. "

"Whatever it was his son Ric was here first. He was married to Elizabeth, then went after Alexis to get to Sonny."

"One more item of tension between Elizabeth and Lexie." He sighed as he added that to the list of things to talk to Alexis about.

"Not really, Elizabeth made a mistake, one that almost cost her, her life. Ric was a lot like his father. They are connected to this mess, but I just can't figure out why or how?" She said.

As they went through things, Julian looked up. "This place on Martha's Vineyard, that belonged to Olivia when we were younger. How did Lansing end up with it?"

Calling her contact, she found out that he had bought it years ago. "Wait, what was that date again?"

Getting the answer, Anna hung up, then turned to Julian. "Trevor bought that house, days after your supposed death. What can you tell me about it?"

"Dad bought it for Olivia when she got married. When her husband died she stopped using it. He had pneumonia but didn't listen to his doctors."

Anna trusted her instinct and called Morgan. "What can you tell me about Martha's Vineyard and Trevor Lansing?"

Hanging up, she called back her contact to confirm Jason's story and said to Julian "Why would anyone own two very large houses on the same small Island?"

"I think that is something we need to check out." He replied getting what she was saying.

"I will check it out, you look at Zachara finances, Trevor has been sticking his hand in the till for years." She informed him. "But first I have to get ready for this party tonight."

"I was invited as well. Not so sure I want to go, most parties when I lived here before ended up in someone getting slapped and or a spouse being found with someone else's spouse."

Sarah and her mother went to change for the party. Carolyn had arranged for a someone from the spa to come help her daughter cover the bruising. Fifteen minutes before they were to be downstairs the makeup artist hadn't shown. Calling down, Marty assured her someone would be right up.

Jax knocked on the door, when he was let in, he explained. "You must find yourself a new hotel."

"All for complaining about not getting a spa treatment? Isn't that a little extreme?" Asked Carolyn.

"No, you are getting kicked out because I don't want your business."

"You can't do that. He can't do that, can he mom?" Asked Sarah.

"Yes I can. Elizabeth is a friend of mine. A doorman will be here to take your luggage down then."

Lulu got on the plane with Laura, she had said goodbye to those she cared about, but as of the end of the week, she was going to be Leslie Lu Spencer adventure girl.

Thinking on the last few years, she had few regrets. The baby and not living her life to the fullest was the other. She was too young to settle down, she wanted to live a life before becoming like Carly or Elizabeth. Saddled with kids and stuck in a small town.

She could not help grinning, knowing that Maxie was even now on her own way to New York to work as a drudge for Fredrico, no matter how she tried to spin it, she had lost out as well.

Jason grabbed his tie and went in to talk to Jake and Cameron who were already wearing their pajamas as they wrestled with Alice. The big maid was letting them win, but when Cam realized Jason was there, he broke off his battle to give him a hug and say "I am sorry, daddy. Did mommy make you dress up?"

Seeing the look on Cam's face, he knelt down and said "sometimes you do what you have to do for the woman in your life. Even wearing ties." He said before kissing them goodnight. Thanking Alice for coming over to watch the boys he went to see what was taking Elizabeth so long.

Arriving in their bedroom, he saw she was standing there in her dark red dress and searching through her jewelry box. "Elizabeth?" He called out.

"Just a minute, my necklace is gone again." She said looking around, then stopping she went in to see the boys. Jason heard the squeals and soon saw his wife exiting carrying something.

"Why would your necklace be in the boys' room?" He asked.

"Jake was playing with it a few days before they left." She said. "Can you help me?"

When Jason came behind her, she held up the chain and after he had moved her hair, settled her necklace down.

Jason couldn't help wondering why she wore a necklace that slid into her dress, but after a few minutes got that it was meant to drive him crazy.

Hearing him groan Elizabeth saw his eyes following the chain down between her breasts. She wondered what he would do if she pulled out the chain and showed him the pendant. Would their red glass make things even harder for him?

Johnny arrived at the party wishing he was anyplace else, but seeing Rebecca standing alone, asked if she wanted to some company. After commending her right hook, he asked if she knew where Elizabeth and Jason were?

"No, but Elizabeth was acting bit strange earlier." She said shrugging her shoulders when Patrick and Robin came over as well. "Robin, you look very nice."

Starting to return the compliment she noticed that Rebecca other than the makeup and hair, was dressed a lot like Emily would have. So she just said "Thank you." Then excused herself to go and find Elizabeth.

Seeing the arriving couple she pulled the younger woman off and said "What does Rebecca's dress remind you of?"

Stunned Elizabeth looked at Robin and said "I saw, the thing is she keeps reminding me of Emily, then that slap earlier. Emily used to say she wanted to pop Sarah one, some day."

Grabbing Anna as she joined them with Julian, Elizabeth accepted the awkward complement from her father while watching Jason avoiding Carly. "I have to go, but let me know what Anna thinks. Julian, would you please escort me over to Jason?"

Julian tried to control the grin on his face as he escorted his beautiful daughter to her husband but he couldn't have been too successful from the little dig that Robert Scorpio got in when he arrived to where the man was standing with his brother and Lexie.

"Hello, Lex." He said ignoring the death glare.

"My name is Alexis, or even better Miss Davis." She said as he drew her onto the dance floor.

"I like Lexie, or Lex better." He said. "Besides, since I have had you flat on your back screaming my name as you came, don't you think Miss Davis is a little formal?"

Alexis went out onto the terrace and gave a muffled scream. She hadn't seen this man in almost thirty years yet he had the ability to not only irritate her faster than any other person on earth did, but also make her wish they were alone in a secluded spot. What the hack was wrong with her? She thought to herself.

Carly wandered around her party, talking to her guests and avoiding Jason. He had made it plain that the only reason he was here was to solidify some deal with Jax. Seeing her husband up ahead talking to Marty, she approached and said "What deal did you make with Jason?"

"Nothing important, it was about Elizabeth's parents. They are no longer guests at this hotel."

Getting the sick feeling that had been done in exchange for attending the party, she went off to find some quiet time, only to hear Alexis screaming in frustration. "What is your problem, are you still upset about Sam?"

"Nothing of the sort." She said. "I received that package; Elizabeth forwarded it to me. Diane brought it over and we are going to add it to the auction for the hospital memorial. Neither one of us wants it."

"I don't either. I can't believe that Sonny did that." She started to rant as Alexis found herself feeling sorry for the blond. When she finished and mentioned that Elizabeth and she had a meeting the next morning about the lawsuit, Alexis grimaced.

Anna took Robert off to the side and invited him on the trip the next day to Martha's Vineyard. While he agreed to go, they saw Sarah Webber slipping into the party then Jason and Elizabeth pulling her off to the side.

"Sarah, what are you doing here?" Said Elizabeth.

"They have kicked us out of the hotel; grams won't let us stay at her house. But dad decided we are leaving so I just wanted you to know you make me sick, you ALWAYS get what you want, now you are married to some rich guy and have rich parents. It's not fair.' she said stomping her feet.

"Why don't you head back to Russia?" Elizabeth said. "There no one can care what I am doing and to who. Frankly Sarah, I could care less what you think or feel."

Sarah was on her way out when Jason stopped her and said "Sarah, if you and that mother of yours doesn't want to face time in a Russian prison, you might want to go away and never come back. Otherwise a certain deal your mother made while in Kosovo will become public knowledge; do we understand each other?"

Storming out, she ran straight into her brother who grabbed her by her arm and took her to the waiting taxi. "I think it is time for you to leave."

When the party ended several hours later, few important things had changed but several small steps had been taken.

Carly was her own worst enemy; she confronted Jason and her about only coming because of the deal with Jax. Jason had simply agreed with her assessment then suggested to Elizabeth that they head out. The blond was still standing behind them with a dazed expression on her face when Jax walked over.

Robin was convinced that Rebecca was Emily. Either way, they wanted to find the truth and since her mother was looking into the supposed murders, she had added that to the list.

Julian had offered to escort Alexis home, knowing it would set her off again. Instead of taking her home, he stopped at the old Quartermaine boathouse, then carrying her in a fireman's hold down the dock ignoring her protests; he tossed her into the water.

"What the heck?" She shouted when she started to swim to shore. "What if I can't swim did you ever thing of that."

"Lexie, we used to skinny dip, remember?" He added with a grin.

Growling she said "You have just ruined a five thousand dollar original."

"I will buy you a new sackcloth in the morning." He said as he saw the girl he once knew coming out in the buttoned down woman she had become.

Arriving at the dock, she snarled, "Help me out."

"I don't think so." With that he dived in and then swam up and dunked her.

"Are you insane?" She whispered when he suggested racing to the edge of the outer buoy.

"No, but frankly, you worry me. You are acting like an old woman." He said as he swam away hoping that the cold water would cool him down some.

Frustrated, annoyed and a little excited, she found herself reaching out intending on dunking him like he had her. Instead she found herself in full body contact with an obviously aroused body.

Julian knew it was wrong, they had so many issues, but seeing her again, had him feeling like the seventeen-year-old who fell in love with an outrageously wild and smart young girl. Pulling her closer, he leaned down and kissed her while swimming out to a spot when he could stand but that her feet wouldn't reach the bottom.

Harper took the call, then went out to the Quartermaines. Arriving he saw the car and wondered if the kids had stolen a car along with trespassing. He knew that Edward Quartermaine himself was up at the house, waiting to hear that he had arrested the rule breakers.

Walking over, he saw the dress floating in the water and started to get worried that he was interrupting something other than a couple of kids and then the sounds coming from the dock, confirmed it.

When he realized he recognized the voice of the soon to be DA, he groaned then took out his phone and called Mac back. "Sir, we have a problem. Alexis Davis is one of the trespassers."

"Let me call Monica." He said sighing before calling and waking up the woman. When she heard the situation, she went down stairs and dragged Edward upstairs, suggesting he go to bed after explaining it was only Alexis.

"What?" He asked still confused as to why the DA was swimming in the middle of the night in the cold freezing water of the river, when she had a perfectly good lake in her own backyard.

Harper tried not to smile, the DA looked a little bit worse for wear as she stood on the dock wearing nothing more than a mens dress shirt and coat as she ordered the man with her to retrieve her now floating dress. Harper tried to look any place else than at the legs that were exposed underneath. "Harper, can you give me a ride to my house?"

"Sorry Miss Davis, but I can't." He said just getting in his car and fleeing after apologizing for the interruption.

"I guess you are stuck with me." Said the man with the grin as he told her to just wear his coat.

"Are you insane, what if we have an accident, how I am supposed to explain this to my daughters?"

"Tell them the truth, you went for a swim and your dress was ruined."

The next morning, Johnny heard his cousin's whistling as he went through the Zachara family finances. "Do you have to be so happy this morning?"

"I shouldn't be, your attorney ripped you off, I would say around fifty million dollars worth."

"We never trusted him, but with my father incapacitated he had control."

"The thing is, I can replace the money, but you have to decide a few things."

"I don't need the money. We are unfortunately fine so far as money." He replied.

"Okay, then, make some decisions; do you want to live here?"

"No, and since Morgan now has the business as part of his, I don't have to worry about that."

"Well what do you want to do with your life, John Anthony Zachara?" He asked sitting back in the black leather chair.

Sitting down, Johnny said "I don't know."

"Then why don't you help us figure out what your attorney did and what is his connection to the deaths of Emily Quartermaine and Georgie Jones.'

"It wasn't that Alcazar kid?" He asked thinking of how proud Spinelli and Maxie had been at ending his so-called rein of terror.

"No, he did kill this Heather Webber and did come back to town, but the timing precludes the murders."

"What do you need to know?"

"Walk me though how things were when Trevor was running things."

Robert and Anna came to the first house and found a woman with a young child inside. "Who are you?"

"We are private investigators, hired to look into Trevor Lansing's holdings and those of his son. Now who are you?"

"Marianna. My daughter is Ric's as well." She said. Anna looked at the little girl and said "You might be required to prove that."

"Fine, I have nothing to hide. I own the local diner, but I visit here so that Adella can be closer to her father since Ric doesn't know about her. I want to tell him, but..."

Anna sat the woman down, and then said "Ric is dead."

"What?" She asked stunned. "How?"

After explaining, Anna asked about the house and saw that all Jason had told her was true, then leaving Robert with the woman, she went to explore the second house that had once belonged to Olivia Jerome.

She soon saw that there was nothing there, just some clothes and a few toiletries for a woman. Walking back down the beach, she asked Marianna about the house.

"Mr. Lansing hired a couple of young girls to house sit it a couple of years back. He would come down and stay here to keep an eye on things. He said he bought it as an investment property but he never rented it out. Do you want to talk to one of the girls? She is still here; she works for me at the diner now. Right now she is in Boston but she will be home this week."

Letting her know that as soon as this young woman returned for her to get in contact, Anna drove back home, certain that they were missing something.

Steven and Mac finished up in his office as he gave him all the information on this Peter Taylor, including what they had learned about his real name.

"So, Heather didn't do this. It was pretty much Alice, right?" He asked.

"From the looks of things she stole him from this foster home, it answered another question for us."

"What did you find out about Sam McCall's real parents?"

"Nothing. It looks like she was simply another unwanted child." He explained. "Did you talk to your father and find out any answers?"

"Turns out there was a DNA test done. But this Peter was convinced that my stepmother altered the tests when she found out. The funny thing is she would have, if she had known about them before hand." He said. "Dad took Sarah and her home, they won't be returning."

"Good, my daughter has enough to deal with." Said an entering Julian. Shaking hands with Steven, he eased the younger man out the door and turned to Mac and said "Trevor Lansing paid someone a million dollars on two different dates. One the date of Emily's death and the other on the day after your daughters."

Carly entered the law firm with her attorney as they were escorted into a room with a man sitting next to Elizabeth. When she greeted Elizabeth, the man stopped her from responding. "Mrs. Jacks, please have a seat."

Once seated, he went through a list of the items that Carly had tried to sue Elizabeth over. "I dropped that." Carly protested.

"True, but I think this is a symptom of a much larger problem."

Carly listened as the man detailed every single confrontation with Elizabeth, even a few she couldn't recall. When they were finished, he asked Carly to explain her relationship with Jason at each point in the list.

"So, you were never more than casual lovers with the man in question, correct."

"We are best friends." She protested hotly.

"Yet, that isn't how Mr. Morgan defines you. His wording was good friend, close friend, but never best friend; though he does concede that you frequently refer to yourself that way. Even going so far as to declare that you are soul mates."

"We are." She said then explained about the day the cannery exploded.

"Interesting, but Mr. Morgan said under oath that it was more like he was concerned because with Michael missing and Sonny being a loose cannon, that had him worried. But once again, you made it to be all about you."

"Sorry I am late." Announced Diane as she joined them. "Are we ready, Elizabeth."

"Yes. Carly, there are only two things I want from you. If you do this, I will drop this suit."

"Then what was all of this about?" She said hotly.

"Mr. Montgomery wanted to question you; I could care less about your answers, because frankly you will never get it. Jason is his own man, not your personal possession. So here is what I want. I want a public apology from you for calling Jake and Cameron bastards and then I want you to admit that you deliberately sabotaged Jason and my relationship in 2002. I don't just want an agreement; I want you to admit to Jason and I all that you did."

"No way in hell." She protested.

"Then we go to trial, where I bring up every single sleazy thing you have done in this town. I will have Robin up there, Jason up there, and I will even put Bobbie on the stand. I will put every single person you have ever insulted or harmed, and we both know that is quite a list. Then I will have Mike Corbin's friends testify. See Mike was pretty chatty, Carly."

Carly looked down, damn that man. "Fine I will apologize for calling the boys those names."

"Carly this isn't a negotiation; it is an all or nothing kind of deal. So that you know, the private detective has about seven pages of information on what you pulled. You can either do this in private with Jason and I, or you can have this done in front of the press and everyone in this town."

"You know, you are a bit-"

Carly's attorney calmed her down, then looked at the top page that Jackson Montgomery offered. Carly read it then realized that they did seem to know all. Either way her time in Jason's life was more than likely finished.

"Fine, but I know that Jason will understand. He knows how I am." She said smugly hoping for one last reprieve.

Entering after Elizabeth had called him, Jason saw the standoff and waited for the attorneys to leave. "Carly, we are ready."

Carly started to talk, explaining about guards following Elizabeth on her orders and letting her know when Jason was with the petite brunette, then explained about helping Courtney, setting things up for her blond by making digs about Courtney and Jason to Elizabeth. When she admitted that she had helped Courtney with setting up AJ, Jason just looked at the woman he had thought was his friend.

"Why do that, AJ wasn't a threat?"

"She was trying to kill him."

"No, she just got him drunk. That was all." The final excuse was the one that made Jason's skin crawl as she explained that she had tried to get Bobbie to fire Elizabeth, but had instead sent Ric to try his hand with the younger woman to keep her away.

"Carly, that public apology, tomorrow with Monica and your mother in attendance along with my grams. Then I will drop the suit." Said Elizabeth sick to her stomach, turns out there were things that Aidan hadn't dug up about the mess in the past.

Jason looked at her and said "Carly you know there is nothing I can say nothing I want to say. But understand one thing, our so-called friendship, its over."

Calling Bobbie, Elizabeth explained that she needed her to be at the mansion the next day, that it was about Carly.

Hanging up, she was holding onto Jason as they walked out of the courthouse. "I am sorry."

"God, Elizabeth. This wasn't you fault. She systemically set out to destroy us; you are not responsible for this. She is." He said pulling her into his arms right in the hallway.

Spinelli went looking for Jason; he had to apologize to his friend. The older man had left town, making it plain that things were going to be changing. Spinelli just wanted to know that he had a place in Stone Cold's plans.

Seeing Maxie as she before she went home to begin packing for her trip, he sighed but kept walking. She had to move on and he had to find a way to do so himself.

Entering the coffee shop, he sat down and waited for Jason. When he finally arrived holding onto Elizabeth's hands, Spinelli apologized then asked to speak to Stone Cold alone.

"What is it Spinelli?" He asked watching as Elizabeth left to go see their boys.

"They are burying fair Sam, today. I know you don't care, but I have to attend the service to honor the friend she once was to me."

Counting to ten, Jason knew that Spinelli was as blind to Sam as he had once been to Carly. "That is up to you."

Spinelli had been hoping that Jason would want to honor his past, but saw that he truly didn't care as he left to go and change for the services. Arriving at the church, he entered and saw no one there, walking around back he saw Father Mateo talking to two men. "Father, I am looking for Sam McCall's funeral."

The priest looked at him astonished then explained that they had already given her last rites. "I am sorry, Mr. Spinelli, but we rarely have anyone attend services for the pauper graves."

Spinelli walked over and saw that they were putting a coffin in the ground and asked for a minute.

"Sir, that is a John Doe." Said the priest.

"Why is he here with Sam?"

"We do the pauper graves all at once to save on money."

"This is wrong; someone should have paid for her burial. I will." He said protesting as he saw them unloading another coffin from the van. No one should be buried on an assembly line, he thought to himself, especially not his friend.

"Spinelli, once a body is in the ground it take a court order for us to remove it. Your friend can't be removed without permission from her family."

"Sam doesn't have any family." He cried out.

"Then I am sorry, there is nothing I can do." He said as he ordered the diggers to bring out the next body.

As Spinelli was walking away, he saw a young girl standing off to the side. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just needed to see that." She said pointing towards the burials. "The woman who is responsible for my father's death is being buried."

"What happened to your dad?" He asked when he saw the very young girl's hand trembling.

"He went on a business trip to California. There was this woman, she found out he was single and rich, the next thing I knew she came back as his new wife. My mom died when I was five and I thought I had a new mom, I was just twelve at the time." She said sadly.

"What happened?" He asked not wanting to face that it had to have been Sam.

"Things were fine when dad was around, but when he wasn't, she ignored me, belittled me. When I was thirteen, I was called to the principal's office. They told me that my dad was dead. But what they wanted to talk about was the abuse. She told them my dad hit her and me. That she was defending herself and me when she killed him. But my dad had never ever laid a hand on me."

"Did you tell them that?" He asked feeling sick.

"Yes, but they didn't believe me. The next thing I knew, I was in a foster home, with a man telling me to call him daddy and wandering hands. I ran away from home and ended up on the streets. Since I was so small, I pretended I was a boy. A couple of years ago, I ended up in a group home after they caught me stealing. I had no choice; I had nothing to eat." She said tears flowing down her face.

"Why didn't you go home? Or to someone from your old life?" He asked.

"I tried, but there was no home to go to. The people at the group home were nice; they helped me get straightened out. They wanted me to contact my family. I told them the truth and they tried to reach someone or even Delta. That was the name she was using, Delta. Instead they found she had cleaned out my trust fund, sold my house. My dad had left everything to me but I have nothing. Nothing at all. While she lived in the lap of luxury, I was eating what I could steal from garbage cans."

Spinelli felt sick, but said "Sam did it so that she could take care of her brother, I know that it isn't a very good excuse, but she didn't do it for herself."

Laughing harshly, the girl stopped the tears flowing down her face by wiping it then said "Let me guess you are another one of her cons. She LIED; my new family looked into it. Just what kind of care could her brother have needed that required the twenty-five million dollars she stole from my dad, or the similar sums of money she took from all those other men."

"Look, let me take you someplace, you shouldn't be wandering the streets." He said trying to herd her towards the other end of the graveyard.

"No thank you." She said scornfully. "I spent five years on the streets of San Diego because of the whore you were just defending. I would rather walk through glass than go ANYPLACE with you." She said.

"What is your name?" He asked helplessly.

"Doreen, Doreen Freeman."

Spinelli watched her leave and went to Kelly's. There he opened his trusty computer and ran her name. The files that came up, sickened him as he read what Sam's lies and theft had left her to deal with, and knew. He knew that he had been conned.

Now he just had to tell Jason the truth and hope that he didn't blame him. Because the story that Sam had told him wasn't hers, it was the story of the young girl he had just met and the only way Sam could have known all of it was if she had been keeping tabs on the girl she had ruined.

"Morgan."

"Jason, I need to see you. It's important."

Looking at his sons as Elizabeth and he were finishing getting them ready for bed, he replied. "Tomorrow Spinelli. Meet me at the office."

Hanging up, Spinelli took out the file and tossed it down. Taking out a pen he wrote what he knew then went to pack his things. At least this way he would have saved someone the trouble of helping him pack, because he was well aware that Jason was going to want to kill him.

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

As things in Port Charles settled down from dealing with Peter Taylor, Elizabeth found herself dealing with a few other problems. The main one being where to live. While Jason and she would have liked to have remained at the cottage, even she had to acknowledge that it was a little small.

Hearing her husband calling out her name as she left GH, she turned as he pulled her into a kiss and hid what was in her hands. "Are we keeping secrets?" he teased.

"Only this one and only until tomorrow. Did you have any luck finding Spinelli today?"

"No, we still have no idea what happened to him and what it was he wanted to tell me about. Do you want to grab some lunch at Kelly's. We can grab the boys a little early and then maybe go for a walk down by the water?"

"Fine, I will call grams, you can find out if those to large cargo ships are still in town that fascinated Cameron last night." she said as they got into the SUV.

Once they had picked up the boys and admired the Lego castle that Steven had helped them build, Elizabeth hugged her brother knowing he was leaving town the next morning. "Are you sure you can't stay?"

"I would love to, but I have work and a certain young red headed nurse with a wicked serve to play tennis with this weekend."

Laughing she gave him a hug and told him not to be a stranger before they pulled out on their way to eat. Hearing her phone, Elizabeth grimaced then told the person on the other end to meet them at the diner.

"Who was that?" he asked as they pulled into the courtyard.

"Alexis, she asked to stop in and talk to me and she is bringing Molly and Kristina with her."

"What about Julian?" he teased as they walked into the small diner.

"I hope not, I am actually starting to like him, but when Alexis and he are together, it gives me a headache." she said as she watched him holding onto Jake's hand while Cam ran ahead to the door with their guard.

"Are you sure you are okay with this?" he asked seeing the look on her face.

"This is only about the boys and her daughters." she replied, she still couldn't bring herself to refer to them as her sisters, in spite of Alexis' bringing the girls to GH after explaining to Molly and Kristina the truth.

Kristina had insisted she was wrong, that Sam was her sister, but that wasn't the problem. Elizabeth who was normally a very trusting and kind person could not bring herself to get close to the girls.

Jason saw the new waitress and getting her attention hoped that Alexis would stop pushing this and let things happen naturally. Seeing Rebecca entering he felt that same shiver he always got when he saw his sister's face on the other woman.

Alexis explained to the girls once again that they were going to see Elizabeth. Molly was excited but Kristina was still sullen about things. The attorney had come to realize that she was jealous of Elizabeth, something she had never been with Sam but she did not know how to address the situation. Lainey said it was normal sibling rivalry, but it felt like something different to Alexis.

When they were all seated around the table with the kids next to their mothers, Kristina saw Jason was there and went to greet her father's friend. "Hi Jason." she said with a smile and hug.

"Hello, why don't we join your mother?" he said.

"Don't' want to." she said stubbornly. "I don't want to sit with that man stealer."

"What?" he asked shocked when she stomped and refused to move any closer. Picking her up, he escorted her outside and sat her down saying "Kristina what is going on?"

"She stole daddy away."

"Who?" he asked getting a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Elizabeth. Sam told me that she was why daddy didn't come around as much."

Jason sat down shocked, then said "Your father didn't leave because of Elizabeth, he was ..., Sonny didn't die beca-"

"Not that daddy, Daddy Ric. When Mommy was sick, he left and didn't come around any more. Sam told me..."

Sam strikes again. thought Jason, "Kristina, Sam was wrong. Ric didn't leave because of Elizabeth, she had nothing to do with it."

"Sam said she stole something precious away from her. That what happened was why Ric left and Mommy cried all the time."

Not sure what was going on with Sam's convoluted story, Jason let the little girl continue. When Kristina had given him enough information, Jason was fuming even as he called inside and had Alexis join them.

When the older woman heard her little girl's story, she sat down and said "Kristina, that is not what happened. Remember when I told you that Sam was sick, that she had a sick mind. That was her telling you one of her untrue stories. Elizabeth didn't have anything to do with Ric leaving."

Once back inside, Jason gave Elizabeth a condensed version, and his wife sighed. Sam was still poisoning things even after her death. Jason and she were convinced that whatever had caused Spinelli to disappear was connected to Sam as well.

Julian was reading a file in Anna's hotel room, trying to help her figure out what was going on with the TMK case when the phone rang. "Devane's room."

"Er, um, I am looking for a woman named Anna, my boss as the diner said she wanted to talk to me about Mr. Lansing?"

"Yes, can you hold a minute." he said before placing the phone down and going next door to Robert's room, knowing it was going to cause a ruckus but that Anna had wanted to talk to this girl. Getting no answer after pounding on the door, he called her cell phone.

"I'm meeting with Mac, in the restaurant, can you get the information for me." she asked. Julian talked to the girl and after getting the answers, rushed up to interrupt the family reunion.

"What did you learn?" she asked seeing his expression.

"The two women, didn't know each other, but one of them is here, get this; Rebecca Shaw stayed on the Island, she shared the house, but the two girls didn't know each other outside of that. Also, this Rebecca arrived a few months earlier than this Jessica did."

"What else, because you look like you won the lottery?"

"She is coming here, I arranged for a car to pick her up. She gave me some very interesting news, both Rebecca Shaw and her were patients at a mental institute in Boston before moving there. Trevor paid all their bills, they think of him as a kindly benefactor, they never actually meet the man. It was only after his death that they learned who he was."

"What?" she asked.

"There is more, turns out the doctor who treated them, lost his license a few years ago, for messing with his patient's mind. He screwed with a few heads, from using drugs and electric shock treatments to simply manipulating their minds. He believed he could create the perfect woman, but then he had a car accident and died about six months ago. Right about at the same time, Rebecca came here, telling Jessica she felt some kind of pull to this place."

"You think the treatments wore off, don't you?"

"I think that our daughters are correct, I think that Rebecca Shaw is Emily Quartermaine." he said with a grin. "And I think I have a way to prove it. I traced a bit of the money that Trevor embezzled, it leads back to that hospital and doctor. His records were seized at the time of his death."

Robert and Mac went to get a court order while Anna went to make a few contacts. "Anna, one more thing, I think that the girl I talked to, I think she is Mac's daughter. The record of payments work out to it being so."

Stunned, she said, if we find proof of that, then more than likely Emily is this other girl.

As the meal progressed, Elizabeth saw the jealously in Kristina's eyes and tried to assuage her feelings of being pushed to the side, but she could see her concern having once been there herself. Whispering to Jason, she asked Kristina to go for a walk with her. "Alexis we will be right back."

Once they were walking, the young girl asked "What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just want to show you something." she said letting her up the stairs to her old studio. Seeing the mess, she sighed, then turned to the little girl and said "This is where I fled to, back when I was feeling bad."

"Why would you feel bad, Sam says you always get everything you want."

"Sam, honestly, Sam was a liar. I know that you are more aware of things than your mom wants to face, so lets get the facts out in the open. I was married to Ric, but that was when you were still a baby. It was a mistake, I know he was good to you, but he did terrible things. Did you know he locked Carly in a room for months?"

"Yes." she said. "But he was always nice to me. And you aren't nice. You were mean to Sam!"

"Kristina do you remember hearing about being kidnapped when you were a baby?"

Seeing the nod, she said "Do you remember being held at gunpoint?" Seeing her fear, Elizabeth knew that asking a ten year old this was wrong, but this girl needed to face a few facts.

"Sam, saw my son get kidnapped, then came and told me that he was dead and that I needed to get over it. She lied to me. Do you ever recall anyone who dated your dad being mean to you?"

Seeing her once again nod, "Did Carly treat you differently, or Kate, or even Claudia or tell anyone she wished you were dead?"

"No." she said softly. She could recall hearing Sam saying something about wishing someone named Jake dead, but she had thought she meant something about the bar that daddy had mentioned, not the little boy she had been introduced to a few days before.

"She hired two men to terrorize my sons with guns in the park. Now, I am not saying Sam wasn't good to you, but this idea that I was the reason Ric left your mom, is wrong. Sam did something and your mom forgave her just like when you do something wrong. Its what we do as parents, we forgive."

"What did she do?" she asked fascinated that this adult was not avoiding the subject.

"As for that, that is your mom's business, she will tell you a few years from now, maybe."

Kristina used the brain that was so much like her mothers and thought things through. Her mom only avoided two subjects, her job and sex. Thinking on it, she asked Elizabeth stunned. "Did Ric have sex with Sam, is that why he left?"

"You need to talk to your mom, but that isn't why I brought you here. I know what is it like to feel left out. My parents, the ones who raised me, my dad loved me but my mother wanted a boy. Dad and she left me, when I was fourteen alone in Colorado because my mom found out the truth about my bio parents."

"They didn't like that Mob/Cassadine thing, huh?" she said knowingly.

"Something like that, do people give you a hard time about your parents?" she asked worried.

"Not really about their job, but about how my dad had so many girlfriends and wives." she admitted sitting on the sofa. "For the most part, my friends just think it is a little weird, but they think the bodyguards are cool."

Elizabeth sat on the bar stool, knowing the insight she was getting would be helpful for once the boys were in school. "Elizabeth can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." she said.

"Are you married to Jason, because if you are, that means you know my brothers."

"A little, why?" she asked.

"We haven't seen each other in so long, when Michael was awake, we got to play together, but now we don't even see Morgan at all. Can you ask Carly to let us see him."

Elizabeth suggested they return to the diner, thinking on the subjects she had discussed with her and telling her she would see what she could do about Morgan. Shocked to realize that it was the first time she had thought of them that way, she asked Kristina, if it was weird having her for a sister.

"No, but it is weird being an aunt. Mom said that we were Cam and Jake's aunts."

Taking Alexis to the side, Elizabeth hated the way the woman's eyes lit up at the private moment with her. "Alexis, Kristina asked about Morgan and Michael, she wants to visit Michael and play with Morgan. There is going to be a play date this weekend, I know you aren't going, but would you let me bring the girls to see him."

"Carly and I have tried to schedule things, but it is hard because Molly doesn't understand why she can't come."

"Why wouldn't she be allowed?"

"I will call Carly, then ..."

"Ask me what?" said the blond as she walked up with shopping bags.

Explaining, Carly agreed, then suggested that Alexis bring them over for the get together. "I didn't invite you because you normally say no."

"Because of Sonny." she replied. "We will be there, you aren't cooking are you?"

"No, Jax is." she replied "Besides according to rumors you aren't much better in the kitchen yourself."

Elizabeth walked back inside and saw Robin and Anna talking with Jason while Julian was calling someone.

"Elizabeth, we found proof. Do you think you can get close to Remily, find out if she has any scars."

"Don't bother, they would be gone." said Julian as he came over. "Does the name Ian Devlin ring any bells."

Giving them the story of his plastic surgery on patients for less than ethical reasons, Elizabeth said "There are ways to remove scars but not chemo treatments."

"Rebecca had them too, remember."

"Yes, but Emily took the drugs and natural remedies from Mexico the first time. They leave a trail. Robin, can you find a reason to draw some blood?"

"Yes, I will run the tests myself. Mom, why are you so frantic?"

"Nothing, just something I hope plays out. Elizabeth, I need a word for a minute with Jason and you."

Once outside Anna and Julian explained about Georgie/ possible Jessica. Then Julian drew them off and said "I know you are looking for a place to live, I might have an idea. I have to meet this girl when she arrives in two hours, but can you follow me."

Arriving at the house, Julian showed the around explaining. "I bought this place, because it was close to town. I know you have been looking at a place, but instead if you like it, I want to do a trade. This place for my fathers old place."

As they wandered the second floor, looking at the bedrooms, Elizabeth drooled over the large corner shower before admiring the three extra bedrooms.

"If we need extra bedrooms we can have the bonus space remodeled." said Jason.

Elizabeth smiled at the likely hood of that, then said "We can turn the room over the garage into an apartment for Spinelli."

"I was thinking we could turn into an art studio for you." he said. "Spinelli, needs to be on his own, if he returns."

"Jason..." she said looking up but seeing the set expression on his face she got the feeling that Spinelli had done more than she was aware of. "Well, then I will see about what else needs done while you handle having the security checked out."

"So you think you can handle living here?" he asked as they walked down the curved entrance way staircase.

"It is a little big." she said but when Julian joined them, she asked how big is it?

"A little under 8000 square foot. So do we have a deal?"

"I think so, but why do you want that old monstrosity."

"I am thinking of turning it into an old folks home for retiring mobsters." he joked, then sighing said "I really don't know. But when I bought this place, it was to be a thank you present to Cheryl as a thanks for helping me. But in truth, it was more like a way to stick it to Robert. Things change."

Jason was avoiding his old penthouse, he had the feeling that the answers to Spinelli were there though, so as he went through what remained of his stuff, he found nothing to indicate where the geek had done. Hearing a pounding on the door, he opened it to see a young girl standing there. "Where is he?"

"I assume you are talking about Spinelli." he said amused as she forced her way in.

"Where is that pathetic excuse, how dare he. I told him I didn't want a thing from his sorry, excuse offering butt."

"Okay, how about you settle down and tell me what you are talking about."

"This." she said thrusting the bag in his direction. Opening it, Jason found a large sum of money all in small bills. "Tell him he can take his blood money and shove it where the sun doesn't shine."

"Why would he feel it was necessary to give you that kind of money?"

"I think he wants to wash away the sins of that soul sucking, titty waving whore who stole all my dad's money and who left me on the streets. I know who you are, I know that you are another one of her cons, a stupid one at that. According to the newspapers, you let her live with you for years."

"Okay, how about we start at the beginning and for the record, I have not been with Sam in several years and regret the time I was involved with her. So why don't you tell me exactly what she did to you."

Sitting down, Jason listened to her story, his jaw tightening when he found out that Spinelli had attended her funeral. Then hearing how the younger man had tried to excuse her behavior shamed him. At one point he had been forgiving when she had told him about her brother Danny. Now looking at it from the other side, he saw that men where not the only victims and that money was a lot more than she had explained.

"I am sorry for what happened to you." he said feeling helpless. "I can replace ..."

"I don't want your money any more than his." she said getting up to leave. When he stopped her, she said "Look, you listened very nicely, but I could tell that none of this was a surprise to you. Let me guess, you thought she was doing something wrong but for a good reason. Yeah, right." she snorted. "You men are all alike, let you get your knob wet and polished and you never stop to think about the innocent victims. As far as I am concerned, you are no better than she was."

Jason felt the shame at that one, but knew he couldn't let this girl just wander the streets. "Where are you staying?"

"I live at this diner and work downstairs." she said "So you can see I don't need anything from any of you."

Jason watched her leave then sat down feeling sick and more than a little dirty as he realized she was correct. If he hadn't slept with Sam, he would have reacted with scorn for what she had done. Feeling a whole lot older as he called Cody with the latest, grabbed the bag he had packed and left the penthouse.

Julian had calmed down the young girl, then went to call Anna. When she arrived she caught her breath at the blond hair and small scar. "What happened here?" she asked touching the scar.

"No idea, why am I being held here?" she asked.

"We are going to put you up at a hotel in town, I just need you to promise not to leave for now."

Nodding, she was soon in a hotel room with several books and orders to call for room service as the couple left her alone. Once outside, Anna asked Aidan to keep an eye on the blond then went to see Robin, having her run the tests, she was excited when they were confirmed to be sisters.

"Mom, what is it?" she asked.

"I promise, I will tell you tomorrow. Right now, I have to talk to someone." Outside she called Kevin Collins back and listened to his advice. "So what you are saying is to tell them. But to have Lainey ready to treat them."

"No, if she is connected to their alter egos it won't work. You need someone new, someone they don't know as well. What about Rae Cummings or maybe try Audrey Hardy's grandson, Tom. Both know the town and the mess it is and can still be distant enough to treat them."

"I am not so sure on Georgie, I think Tom dated Felicia at one point." she replied, "But I will look into it."

Anna started making plans for the next day even as Spinelli was returning home. Arriving on the train, he felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Jason would have read his letter by now and he knew he would have lost a friend. Hearing his name being called he turned astonished to see Maxie waiting for him.

"I thought you were in New York with your fancy new job."

"Dad asked me to come down for the weekend, that it was important. So since I knew you were coming in today from your letter, I drove up tonight. We need to talk about you blowing your hold world apart, for what? A need to apologize to Elizabeth "I'm so perfect' Webber, please do you really think she didn't get pregnant on purpose to trap Jason."

Spinelli looked down then his eyes shot up and looked at Maxie "How do you know what I did?"

"I took the letter, I am not going to let you toss your life away like this." she said with her hands on her hips.

Spinelli groaned as he realized Jason had no idea why he had left. "Where is my letter to Jason, Maxie?"

"Here. You don't have to be so mean." she said thrusting the crumpled letter at him. "I was only trying to help."

"No, you were interfering because you still want to hurt Elizabeth. Maxie, go back to New York. There is nothing left for you here. At least not with me." he said walking away and ignoring her offer of a ride. "I would rather walk the fifteen blocks."

Spinelli went to Kelly's to see if there was a room available. The woman behind the counter told him that Mike had quit a few days before agreed to rent him a room. "Your name."

Telling her what she needed, he took the key and said "Thank you Penny." before heading up the stairs the weight he was carrying around feeling even heavier. He looked at the time, hesitated, then called Jason.

"Morgan." he heard.

"Jason, I need to talk to you." he told his former boss.

Stunned to hear Spinelli call him by his name, Jason said to meet him at the warehouse in an hour. Turning to his wife, he saw she was putting away the last of the dishes. Ruefully explaining, he saw her smile and then she said "Find out if he is alright. I know you have been worried about him."

He hadn't told her about the girl, his own shame not allowing him to. The young woman had hit a nerve and Jason was still trying to work through his feelings on things. When he arrived at the warehouse, along with Cody Spinelli sat down in front of the desk and said.

"I left you a note at the Penthouse, but for some reason Maxie found it first." Thrusting it at Jason, he looked down.

"Is this about the girl who ended up on the streets because of Sam?" he asked. "She came looking for you, refused to take the money you left for her."

"I was afraid of that." Spinelli said. "Jason, there is more. I did something that I never told you about."

"Just spill it." he said.

"When I saw that you were upset after breaking up with Elizabeth last year after your surgery, I went to Sam, hoping that the two of you would work things out. I just, I just thought she was a better fit in your world and that if she was around you might decide you wanted to see Jake. I mean, it..."

Jason was gripping the edge of the desk and Spinelli saw that. "..it just seemed like things would be back the way I thought they were meant to be. I mean you only started seeing Elizabeth that way after finding out about Jake.." he stopped talking when he saw Jason standing and moving around to his side of the desk.

Leaning in closely, Jason said softly "You know nothing about my feelings for Elizabeth. Nothing at all. You have barely lived here. You only saw the end of things, you heard Sam and Lulu's version of the facts. Both of whom had their own agendas. Well let me give you a clue, if Elizabeth had come to me at any time in the last eight years and said "I love you, we would have been out of here."

"But you didn't leave last year..." he protested.

"Only because I blamed myself and knew that Sonny would not let things rest. Spinelli, you know nothing of my life with Elizabeth and of our past. I think it might be a good time for a parting of the ways. You can stay at the penthouse for now, but by the end of summer I want you out. You have your PI business and I talked to Cody, here. He is going to come in in place of Sam. But you being in my business and my life, we are done. You went too far this time."

Walking out, Jason knew that Cody would take care of the kid. Sonny had been correct, in the end, Spinelli had been a mistake.

TBC

Once more chapter left, the play date at the Jacks and another one at the Scorpios, as well as a small shingdig at the Quartermaines.

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Jason slipped into bed later that evening curling up around his wife, needing the comfort only she could provide.

Elizabeth turned around and said "What is it?"

Pulling her close, Jason told her everything. About the young girl alone on the streets, about Spinelli and Sam. About how he felt shame at knowing he had made excuses for her.

"You loved her. How many times have I made excuses for Lucky or even Ric when I was married to him? You loved her like I loved them. Seeing what you wanted to see." She said gently.

"There are things, things I did... the thing is, you are wrong. I am supposed to be able to see through to the darkness in people. I... I was willing to be with someone who could do something so vile, and went so far as to cover up things for her. I..." Did the same thing for Courtney, he said to himself sickened by the way he had acted in the past.

"We are all like that Jason." She said pulling him in close.

"No, see I saw the look in that girl's eyes and I knew the truth. I was with Sam and well Courtney because I never thought I... I never faced up to the fact that I pushed you away, let you walk out... for... for nothing. I hurt people I loved and now I learned that I did damage to those I didn't even know. All because some part of me, some part of me didn't want to admit a decision I made years ago, was wrong."

Jason could not help thinking of the man that Sonny had been then, was that also a case of seeing what he had wanted to. This girl had reminded him of Elizabeth and he knew that that was part of where the pain came from.

"Jason..." Elizabeth realized that he had seen in this girl's eyes what he had always expected to see in hers. "Jason, I have NEVER had any illusion about what you do, I have always known. I know that it is dangerous and dirty. I even know that part of you LOATHS who you become, but Jason that isn't who you are now."

"Elizabeth, I made that decision to let Sam stay, she was right about that. Not for the sex like she thought, but... because if I was wrong, then what would I have had left in my life. I made excuses like Sonny would have."

"Jason, we can only move forward. Accept that the past happened." She said. "You made a mistake. That is all."

"A mistake I can never apologize for. Then there is Spinelli going to Sam, saying I wanted to try again, it more than likely led to her telling about Jake. We know that she was partly responsible for the Russians, even Spinelli admits that she took chances to get me to do what I always do for people. I rescued her out of habit."

"Are you sure you want to kick him out of your life?" She said lifting her head from the hollow in Jason's neck.

"Yes." He said firmly. "He just never learns. If I need his help, I can hire him in a professional capacity, which will be it. Maybe he will mature and move on."

Alexis let Julian in, then said "They are in bed already. You had better have a damn good excuse. You told them you would visit for dinner."

"Does finding out Georgie Jones is alive and well, count?" He asked sitting down on her sofa. Seeing her stunned expression, he continued. "Rebecca is Emily. Trevor Lansing grabbed them both, why I don't know."

She lowered herself to the cushions and said "Alive?"

"Yes, alive. Georgie is even now camped out in a suite at the Metrocourt. Lansing had some doctor who was a behavior specialist mess with their minds. But he wasn't finished and that is why Emily turned up here. She told Georgie she felt a pull to this town after hearing about it from the owner of the diner where they worked."

"Georgie didn't?" She asked.

"No, in fact she only came here reluctantly. She feels more a sense of not wanting to be here."

"I have to call Mac." She said going to pick up her cell phone.

"You can't." He said firmly. "Anna arranged for a doctor to come and treat the two of them. While Rebecca is having memories, Georgie isn't. Seeing Mac or her sister could push her over the edge. We need to let things play out."

Alexis knew that if it were her daughter she would want to be there. Like she wanted with Elizabeth, and like she had tried with Sam when she believed she was hers. "Julian, maybe we can..."

"Lexie, no." he said. "Mac would want to be there for her, but we all know that won't work. I read the file on Spencer's brainwashing, I know that part of the problem was that afterwords he should have gotten more treatment. But instead people let him stop going. I know he was a pretty decent kid before hand. Do you want that for Georgie?"

"But it isn't the same thing. Helena did a real job on his mind."

"Yes and no, it isn't the same in that Georgie doesn't want to kill anyone, but we still don't know why these two girls were used as test subjects."

"If you had waited, I would have been able to answer that" said an annoyed Anna from the doorway with her hands on her hips. "Turns out it was just practice. He planned on using it on John and Claudia Zachara."

"How? What?" Asked Alexis.

"We just found the proof in the doctor's files. With Claudia married, and the doc gone, all this Lansing had left was the two women. My guess is he was holding them in reserve in case he needed something to use against Jason Morgan."

The next day, Carly let in Alexis and her daughters saying Morgan is outside with Jax.

"Is Cameron here yet?" Asked an eager Molly.

"No, he should be arriving soon though." Said Carly.

Alexis sighed; this was not going to be fun. Turning to Carly she said "Thank you for letting them come over."

"No problem. I should have thought of it, but I could not seem to get the fact that they are all related."

"Something I wish Molly had a problem with. She now thinks that since she is Cameron's aunt she can boss him around. I really wish Elizabeth hadn't tried to explain that. "

"Sort of like her Mother, huh. Always telling people what to do." Said Carly with smart-ass smiled. "We had better get out there before Kristina starts telling Jax how to light the grill since we know how much you Davis women like to boss others around."

Alexis just shook her head as they went through the door and out to the large backyard. Hearing the sound of more than just three kids, she was surprised to see Spencer there as well.

"Well we couldn't leave him out." Grumbled Carly at the look of surprise on Alexis' face. Hearing the sound of Cameron coming around the side of the house, Alexis saw that Jason and Elizabeth looked at little tense.

"What is it?" She asked approaching.

"Nothing, for right now. We will tell you later." Said Elizabeth cutting of Carly when she started to approach her best friend.

Turning to Elizabeth, she said what is going on? What did you do to Jason?

"Carly, nothing is gong on with me. Now leave it alone." He said tersely as he walked over. Julian had come over that morning and told them about Emily and Georgie Jones. Adding that to the Sam mess, Jason was more than a little worried about his sister and what Anna had told them there.

Elizabeth tried to avoid Carly, every since the apology in front of Monica and her mother along with Edward and Robin, they had declared a truce. But sometimes it was difficult to deal with the blond who didn't seem to get that Jason didn't want her popping in anymore.

Seeing Carly approaching them as they were leaving a few hours later, Elizabeth escorted Cameron and Jake to the truck knowing Jason had had enough of her questioning.

"Jason, what did she do to you?" Asked Carly forgetting all about her promise to stay out of things.

"Carly for the record, nothing happened between Elizabeth and I, we just learned something about Sam and Spinelli that upset me. Adding in the fact that I am readying things; changing over to being as legal as possible." He didn't tell her about Emily, it really wasn't any of her business.

"What about Spinelli?" She asked.

Jason weighed things in his mind then told her what had happened.

"So he is why all of last winter happened?" She asked stunned.

"Partly. I ordered him to move out of the penthouse by the end of the summer. I have had an offer on it as well as the one across the hall."

"Sell them, if I never see that penthouse again, I will be quite happy." She said still angry with Sonny. "Olivia introduced Dante to Morgan and wants to do the same with Kristina, but Alexis is waiting before making up her mind."

"I talked to Kate the other day. She said that they are leaving town at the end of the month." He said. "See you later, Carly."

The blond watched as her best friend left, with a twisted smile, she had to admit that the only reason he had stayed as long as had was because of Elizabeth, so it looked like there were some good things coming from that relationship.

Alexis was leaving when Jax thanked her for bringing the girls over. "I think Morgan needed to see his sister and cousin."

"I know the same thing for the girls. How is Michael doing?"

"The same, Carly had hope for that new procedure but it isn't for someone in Michael's condition. Between the baby and Morgan, I think it helps to keep her busy though." He said looking on as his wife turned Spencer over to his nanny. "Alexis, I don't mean to criticize but where is Nik? Why isn't he here with Spencer?"

Looking over at Spencer she said "This is one time you would be wrong about the reason. He made a decision to get away from Spoon Island; he wants to raise his son away from there. He just bought Elizabeth's house."

Alexis also knew that he was reeling from what he had been told about Emily.

Seeing his expression, she said "Julian had a house here, he gave it to Elizabeth in exchange for her ownership of his dad's old house."

"Really, so they are moving soon?" He asked hoping that if it was far enough out of town, Carly might stop trying to find excuses to just pop over.

"Next week. We are talking, it might be a while before there is any kind of mother and daughter connection, but I have hope. She seems to have been getting close to Julian."

"What is going on between the two of you? Rumor is you were caught at the Quartermaine boathouse with him." He said with a slight smile.

"The usual stuff. I say one thing; he just cajoles me into doing what he wants. Julian says I have become too stiff and too much of a stick in the mud."

Pretending shock Jax said "NO! I would have never guessed. I mean you were pretty EASY GOING when I first met you."

"You would not believe the way Mr. Julian told us mommy acted." Said Kristina as she joined them excitedly. "He said Mommy used to be wild, that she jumped off a bridge and went swimming late at night. I don't get why that one is such a big deal." With a shrug she walked towards the car while Alexis blushed at the knowing look on her friend's face.

"Not a word, Jasper Jacks." She warned as she gathered a tired Molly and left.

Gathering Carly into his arms, Jax said "Well that went well."

Sighing she said "Yes, I can't believe how much Jake looks like Jason and yet acts just like Elizabeth."

Laughing, he pulled her into the house saying "Morgan is taking a shower as we speak, why don't we do the same then I will take you both to the movies."

Anna and Robert dealt with getting Georgie to listen to the doctor then gently showed her the photos and yearbooks. "I can't be this girl, I mean she doesn't act at all like I do."

"That is the result of what this doctor did to you." Said Anna sitting on the chair.

"So you are saying that Rebecca is this Emily Quartermaine, and we were murdered, or rather our deaths were faked. Then he had us brainwashed for practice?" She said doubtfully. "For practice? I think that you have been watching too many spy movies. Next you will tell me that you work for the government."

"Weeeellllll... not the US Government." Said Robert. "We work for a secret..."

"Yeah, right." She said not believing a word of it. "So you said that Mac is my stepfather, where are my biological parents?"

Anna explained and grimaced when she saw the look in Georgie's eyes. Calling Elizabeth, she asked the younger woman to stopover and visit. "Elizabeth knows you and the other you know her without any emotional attachments."

Jason and the boys dropped Elizabeth off then he took them home knowing they needed a good bath. When he had them in the hot soapy, he took pleasure in having the time to take care of his sons by himself. When they were ready, he sat with them out onto the porch and saw Maxie Jones entering Robins' house.

Patrick came out soon after, avoiding the blond since hearing what she had pulled. "Morgan."

"Do you mind keeping an eye on the boys; there is something I need to say to Maxie." He asked the man a bit amused to realize that over the past few months they had declared a weird truce.

"Sure, we can play race cars in the den." Cam was excited; he loved beating Doctor Patrick at Race cars. Patrick took them around to the side door when he saw that Maxie was getting ready to leave after what looked like an argument with Robin.

Jason gave a nod to the guards and they 'escorted' the blond over. "You can't force me to come over here."

"Well, we can talk about how you broke into my house, since I know that I didn't give you a key and according to Spinelli he didn't either." Jason said as he crossed his arms. "Then we can discuss what you knew about Sam's plan to send my children into danger."

"I knew nothing about that." She said trying to avoid his eyes. She wasn't really lying, she hadn't known Jake was his son.

"Really, you are a lying bitch." He said coldly. "I know all Maxie, why do you think you lost your job. The man you are working for now, is in financial trouble, I already talked to him. How long do you think before he fires you as well?"

Maxie started to protest then saw the look in his eyes. "Why aren't you blaming Spinelli as well? Or yourself, you were all so friendly with Sam when it suited your purposes."

"I don't owe you any explanations. As for Spinelli, he no longer works for me, nor will he be living in my penthouse after August. You on the other hand, you blame Elizabeth for way too many things. I am going to keep making you pay for the harm you did to my family. Every time you get a job, every time you find a place to live. I am going to take everything you have away." He said.

"But-" she started to protest. "Spinelli wouldn't-"

"No one can help you and we both know that I am rich enough for it to not make a difference to me." He said. "I have never used my money against another person but you, you I am going to ruin. Until you make an honest effort and come to understand that you and only you are responsible for what happened in the past. Not even Lucky is responsible for what happened to you."

Seeing the scared look on her face, Jason sighed. He hadn't intended for things to go this far, but he had good idea what she had done. Well no more passes for women like her. Carly was getting the hint and soon so would Maxie, she had a chance to change, he was hoping she would take it.

"Why?" She asked bewildered. "For Elizabeth?"

"Yes. Even now, even knowing what you did, she is helping you. Something for you to think about when you learn what has been going on in the past few days. Now go home and think about what you have done."

Elizabeth gently talked to Georgie, telling some of things that she could recall as the younger girl explained her first session with Anna's doctor from Pine Valley.

"So this happened to your ex-boyfriend." She said as she got comfortable with the kind woman.

"It was a little different." Said Elizabeth as she got ready to leave. "Here, this is my phone number, if you ever need an impartial ear, give me a call."

Taking the piece of paper, she gave her a shy smile as Julian escorted his daughter home. "Thank you for the ride. My guard is waiting for me."

"And miss spending time with my daughter." He said with a smile. "I hear your friend is fairly accepting of truly being Emily."

"She is working with Lainey." Said Elizabeth wishing that she had been there but the doctors had decided that it would be only be Monica until the drugs worked.

Getting a call as they pulled up he told Elizabeth and Jason who had joined them in the driveway, "I have a meeting with Mac Scorpio. Alexis went and told him that Anna had found Georgie."

Alexis had been very vocal earlier that day when speaking about the situation. Jason got where she was coming from, but thought that their first priority had to be Georgie.

Mac wondered why Alexis had asked him to meet her at the Q's. When the attorney and Julian arrived and argued before walking over, he was even more confused.

Ten minutes later Mac sat stunned, then turned to Anna and said "Are you sure it is Georgie?"

"Yes, but she isn't ready to deal with her family. I brought in a doctor I know, and my ex-husband. David is an expert on these type drugs, so while he is working that angle, they are working with Georgie."

"How long?" He asked looking at Rebecca/Emily as she joined them.

"That doctor is creating a cocktail, so I am going to be the first to take it. Then your daughter." She assured the man. "Since I felt a pull towards Port Charles, we think that I am less likely to resist it mentally."

Julian and Alexis were arguing with someone outside his hotel room when Georgie woke up. She rubbed her sore arm where the doctor had given her the second shot a few hours earlier.

Walking to the door, she saw the man who had been helping her arguing with a couple in shadows. "Would you please take this argument elsewhere?"

They watched as she slammed the door, Julian turning to Alexis saying. "I think I proved my point." Mac just walked away, dazed as he realized his daughter truly didn't know him.

"Yes that it is on the top of your head and needs to be hammered down." She snapped before going to the elevator. Following her, he stopped her as she got on and kissed her thoroughly, then hit the button for the lobby.

"You know you missed me." With that the doors closed before she could make the retort on her lips. Sauntering back to his room, he went to bed knowing that tomorrow was going to be interesting.

As the various guests arrived for the party, Monica was helping Rebecca deal with her other half's past. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, Nik and I talked. I don't think we are ever going to get that part of us back." She said sadly.

Monica hoped her daughter wasn't making a mistake, but the talk with Elizabeth about what had happened to Lucky and her in the past had helped.

Walking down the stairs, Monica was excited. Even Tracy's sons had made the trip across country to help celebrate the adoption as well as the return of Emily. "Ned, where is Brooklynn?"

"She is outside with Kate Howard and Olivia Falconari. Did you know about Sonny's son?" He asked still amused at the idea of even more Corinthos kids. Hadn't that man ever heard of condoms?

Dillon saw Maxie pouting in the corner while talking to Mac. He went over to see her, needing that quick contact with his old love's sister. Seeing Spinelli arriving and then only saying a few words to the blond intrigued him. Last he had heard, they were seeing each other. "Maxie, how are you?"

"Well if you cousin wasn't trying to ruin my life, I would be great." She said pouting and then perking up when she saw the hot looking guy talking to Kate and her cousin. Dillon shook his head, same old Maxie as he saw Spinelli talking to a dark haired man who did not look happy with him.

"Look, I doubt that Maxie or you were meant to be on the guest list, why don't you leave?" Johnny knew that Jason was not going to be happy with his being here.

"I don't know who you are, but Spinelli is welcome and so is Maxie." Said Dillon as he approached.

"Really, talked to your cousin lately, heard about how Maxie and his irresponsibility led to the kidnapping of Jake Morgan and the almost end of Jason and Elizabeth?" Mocked Johnny. "That Spinelli has been kicked out of the penthouse?"

"Spinelli, what is he talking about?" Asked Dillon as Brooklynn and some dark haired friend from her old neighborhood approached. Spinelli found himself confessing to Stone Cold's cousin and the rest of the late Fair Georgie's friends.

Johnny just shook his head and walked away, sick of the whole thing. Walking over to see Matt Hunter and his brother discussing drug protocols, he rescued baby Emma from boredom by making faces at her.

"You know if your face freezes like that, I know a good surgeon." Teased Robin.

Flushing he said "I have never been around kids much."

"You look like you would enjoy them." She said then added. "Not that your entertaining my little one isn't funny, but why are you not hanging around with your friends?"

"Them?" He asked pointing at the mess with the voices getting louder in annoyance. "They are really my only choice. Have you ever felt maturer than anyone around you?"

"Quite a bit." She said with a slight smile. "I know that things were rough, but you have family now."

"I know I have been over at Elizabeth's. She has been more than welcoming, but I feel awkward."

"Because of who your father was?"

Laughing he said "For once that isn't it. Have you ever seen Jason and her, after the boys are in bed. I feel like a fifth wheel."

"Gotcha." She said with a laugh. "What about Lulu weren't you seeing her?"

"She was fun, but long term, I don't think we were meant to make it. Our end goals are too different."

Robin didn't add the level of maturity as well. Seeing Nik, she sighed. She had hoped things would work out for Emily and him, but that too much had changed.

Looking around she saw that Elizabeth and Jason were talking to Monica who was hugging both of the boys who in turn were trying to go and play with their friends. Seeing Cam's look of relief on his face as he raced away as quickly as possible made both of them laugh.

"What?" Asked Patrick. He had heard most of her conversation with Johnny and knew that she was thinking of trying to set him up with someone. It was how Robin was, everything had to have a place, and everything had to fit.

Then she watched as Patrick took Emma over to where the younger set were playing on the newly built jungle gym set that put the local private elementary school's to shame.

Jason saw the way Elizabeth was trying to drag him off, but that no one seemed to be willing to let her. Wondering what was going on, he saw the desperate look on her face and quickly pulled her into a private alcove. "What is it? Do you want to leave?"

Sighing she knew that her plan had been shot to heck the previous evening. Jason had been at a meeting and after getting good news had been more than a little happy to see her. They had gotten distracted and her planned surprise had gone out the window.

The problem was that working in the hospital meant too many people knew or had figured it out and she had wanted to find some private time to tell him the news. So much for that, she thought ironically. "I have something to tell you."

"Elizabeth!" Shouted Nadine as she looked for her with Steven. He had seen the couple so he suggested that they try inside having a good idea what Elizabeth was trying to do.

"What is it?" He asked worried. Elizabeth had been keeping a secret for days and he was now more than a little concerned.

"I'm ..."

"Jason, where are you?" Shouted an excited Carly. She had overheard Monica and Bobbie talking about Elizabeth being pregnant and wanted to congratulate him on being able to be there all the way this time.

Elizabeth knew that Carly was like a bloodhound and would not give up. "Okay, here it is. I am pregnant. Four weeks."

"Preg...?" He started to say, shocked, awed and ready to commit murder when Alexis saw them and started to call out to Julian. Knowing what he was about to do was wrong, he did it anyhow. Placing his hand on her mouth, he said "Not a word, now go away, we are trying to hide. We are having a baby, so go away."

Elizabeth grabbed her stomach from laughing as Alexis' eyes went from furious; to stunned and then to excited as she realized what he was saying. When she was released, Alexis rushed to find someone to tell, seeing Mac refereeing an argument between Julian and Robert with Bobbie and Carly there as well. She knew EXACTLY whom she wanted to tell.

"Congratulations, grandpa."

The three men looked at one another, Mac sick with worry that Maxie had done something foolish and Robert wondering if Robin was pregnant again. "So Julian, anything to say?"

Getting it, he said idly wanting to annoy her some more yet have witnesses for what he was about to do, he said "Don't you think that before our daughter has more kids, maybe her parents should be wed first?"

Carly was laughing at the way Alexis' jaw dropped when it hit her what she had said. "How do you know that?"

"Jason just told me." She said well aware that Carly had been trying to find confirmation of the baby since arriving.

Hurt that Jason hadn't told her yet, she walked off to see Jax talking to Ned. "So have they made the announcement yet?"

"You KNOW?" She asked her feeling really hurt now. "Jason told you about the baby before me?"

Both men denying what she was talking about, Jax drew her off and explained about Kate and her former boss Warren James getting married.

Elizabeth found herself being carried up the back stairs of the Quartermaine mansion once Jason had gotten himself back under control. First had come the shock, then the excitement, then the worry they had been too rough the night before, followed by his being rather 'excited' by the idea, hence the visit to his old room.

Laying her down, Jason lifted the A-line dress and removed it leaving his wife only in her bra and panties. "Jason, the boys!" She said laughing as he went to the window and then said "They are with Edward and Alice, I think we are safe."

Quickly unbuttoning his shirt, he soon joined her on the bed, slowly removing the rest of their clothes while enjoying the teasing and laughter as they found the joy too much to contain. "So a girl or boy?"

"I don't care." He said kissing his way down her neck. "Healthy and happy."

Panting, she said "I sort of want a girl, I feel a little outnuummmbb.." She didn't finish as Jason kissed his way down her still flat stomach and and settled between her thighs. "JJJASSSSEE..."

Jason and Elizabeth had felt their body temperatures lower as they got their breath back. Hearing the sound of people calling their names, she said while laughing "You are the one explaining this one."

"We just look them in the eyes and tell them it is none of their business" he said looking around for Elizabeth's bra as they got dressed.

"Oh my god, I can't go without a bra, not in this dress." She said moaning. "I am going to..."

Jason decided to distract her by lightly sucking on said problem when she held his head and said "Behave, you got me into this mess like that."

Slipping on her dress, she felt her body reacting to the soft silky material and said roughly. "Help me!"

"I was trying; you are the one insisting on getting dressed." He said sitting on the bed, thinking this was one of the more enjoyable parties he had ever been at.

Glaring at him, she heard the sound of arguing and went to the window. Listening in, she started laughing and came over to pull Jason to the window.

"You are deranged aren't you? You are just looking for someone to take care of you when you are in the insane asylum." They heard hissed back.

"Sure, so I chose my neurotic ex-girlfriend who would toss my rear into the nearest government run facility. I am asking you to marry me; I even did it in front of witnesses this time."

"Stop making a mockery of me." She was sure it was all a joke.

"I am serious, I think that before we become grandparents again, it might help our daughter to know that she has the stability of a happy family. So marry me, besides, Molly and Kristina are already on my side."

"Only because you bribed them with horses." She whispered back.

"It worked; nice thing is I am rich enough that the bribes can keep getting bigger until you just give in. Com'n Lexie we would have been together a long time ago, if we had done what we wanted then."

"Go away, Julian, go annoy someone else. I think that Diane is still into bad boys, maybe Olivia is if she isn't."

"Sorry, I don't share with relatives. She had a One-Night Stand with Johnny a few weeks ago. Nothing came of it, but I am not going there, so save me Alexis. Save me from dying a lonely old man with a broken heart."

Elizabeth could not help it, she leaned out the window and said "Since Molly and Kristina got horses, what do I get if I throw my vote your way, Julian?"

Looking up in amusement, he saw the horror on Alexis' face as she realized that Elizabeth and Jason had to have heard the whole thing. "Well since I doubt a pony will do, what would you like?"

Thinking on it, she gave Jason a slow smile and asked "Did you give them riding lessons as well?"

"Yes, why?" He asked getting the feeling he was about to regret his answer.

"Then I want a bike, a nice shiny black motorcycle with lessons. If not from you than from Jason." She said with a sidelong look at his expression.

"No way." He said crossing his arms.

Julian looked up and said, "Sorry, have to go with Jason on this one."

"In that case, Alexis I am on your side. Don't marry him. Don't let the man bully his way. Julian, instead of stalking her, why don't you try doing normal date things, like dinner and movie, or maybe ice skating, how about a picnic. You know the things that women like?" She said with another look at Jason.

"Why do I get the feeling that advice was for more than your father?" Asked Alexis amused as she saw her daughter pulled back gently into the room and then the sound of male laughter from above.

"Lexie, I still love you. Say yes?" He asked.

Looking into his eyes, she said "I must be insane. Yes."

Arriving back at the party, Elizabeth felt self-conscious as they joined the boys while waiting for Monica's announcement about the adoption. Seeing the look on Carly's face, Elizabeth couldn't help wondering what had her so upset, as the pregnant blond seemed to be leaning on Jax for emotional support.

"As many of you are aware this party is a celebration of life. From the return of my daughter, Emily to Cameron officially joining the family as well as the baby that Elizabeth is carrying." She said with a smile. When everyone else had been looking for the couple earlier, she kept well aware that they had more than likely been celebrating.

"But it is more than that, we have been through a rough couple of years, we lost some people along the way. But it is time to move on to the future, so lets be thankful for those we have in our lives and for those in the future." She said before toasting them with the sparking juice that was in the glasses.

Mac knew that Maxie was avoiding him and went to find Robin. He said that he had news about Georgie and suggested that she get Maxie and meet him by the Quartermaine docks.

Arriving, Maxie asked "Did Emily know something?"

"Yes." He said not as happy as he should have been. "Georgie is alive. She is here in town."

After all the happiness had settled, Robin and Maxie insisted on seeing her. Mac waited until Anna and Elizabeth had joined them before explaining. Maxie paled while Robin asked Elizabeth how she was involved.

"I was the impartial person she talked to yesterday. It is Georgie, but she is going to need time. From what was explained to me earlier, this is nothing like what happened to Lucky." She said smiling when she saw her cousin approaching with Jason.

"What do you mean?" Asked Maxie not liking that Elizabeth of all people was helping HER sister.

"David said that Emily was taken first, so she was the first test subject. This doctor fixed the mistakes he made with Emily's training. It is one of the reasons that Emily still felt a pull towards here. Georgie he used the better technique on. Her training went a little deeper."

"But Emily is fine, right?" Asked Maxie as Robin recalled what Nik had told her earlier.

"No, there was emotional damage. She doesn't remember loving Nik, or Spencer. She has her love for her family but that is still a little weak."

"She is able to remember dark emotions much easier than happy ones." Said Elizabeth. "Same thing with Georgie."

"So what you are saying is that my sister won't recognize me. YOU are wrong; you have NO idea of the bond between us." Said Maxie as tears flew down her face.

"Why did he do this, that is the one thing no one will tell me?" Said Mac.

Sighing, Anna wished that Johnny wasn't here as she explained what Trevor had planned. Seeing him pale, she said "You are not at fault. Lansing was."

Walking away, he saw the party in the distance and got into his car and drove needing to get away.

Maxie left after realizing where they had her sister, bulldozing her way into the room; she was stunned at the fact that her sister didn't even seem to see her. "Georgie?"

The girl looked up and said "Maxie; you are the one who is my sister right?"

"Yeah." She said sitting down, knowing that they had been wrong.

"Good, then maybe you can explain the rest of these to me." She said showing her a family photo album. "Who are these people and what are these pictures about?"

Four hours later, Maxie left feeling as flat as a human being could. Wandering the streets, she found herself going to see Robin, but instead of pulling into her drive she went into the one next door.

The guards were outside watching Elizabeth sketch on the porch as Jason took his turn putting the boys to bed again. "Mrs. Morgan?" Said the guard.

Looking up she saw the expression on Maxie face, and setting down her pad, walked off the porch to meet the blond. Seeing the girl with bewildered eyes, Elizabeth got what was going on as the blond let the tears flow and then the knees gave way, Elizabeth held onto her as shudders raked through the younger girl's body.

"SShh. It might not be the same, but I promise, you will get through it." She said rubbing her shoulders as the blond's head landed in her lap as the sobs were heard throughout the yard.

Jason walked out onto the porch, wanting to protest but knowing that there was no way Elizabeth wouldn't help the young girl. Seeing her expression as she looked up to him, he went back inside and called over to see if Robin was home.

When they had gotten her over to the doctor's house, he saw his wife returning. "She is wreck."

"What happened and why did she come here?"

"Because she knew that I had been there, she told me that in between the sobbing." She said curling up with him on the sofa. "I think Maxie is going to need help. Haywood says Georgie will regain the memories but none of her previous emotions."

Jason shivered he had been there before, but he thought having the memories would make it worse, much much worse. "What caused this incident?"

"Georgie told her that she only came here to help Emily/Rebecca, she is leaving for Europe tomorrow. I think it was what set this off."

Jason was walking up the stairs with Elizabeth recalling how much they had gained and yet had lost. Tomorrow they were moving into their new home, moving towards that future together they had always wanted.

He only hoped that others would find what they needed. Feeling the tug from Elizabeth, he realized he had stopped on the stairs. Looking up at her, he was once again amazed at how beautiful the woman he was married to was.

Not only her outer beauty, but the inner beauty that allowed her to help those in need, to love him in spite of what he had done in the past. "I love you, you do know that don't you?"

"Yes." She said smiling. "I love you too."

Twenty months later..

Jason was trying to convince his one-year-old son that a coat was necessary as they went to pick out up his brothers. Hearing the sound of soft laughter he looked up to see his wife sitting on the central staircase. "What are you doing up?"

"Kelly said I am fine. Just a little dehydrated." She said. "I can't believe I am pregnant again."

"You said you wanted a girl." He said "Something about evening things out around here."

Walking down, she took the coat and soon had Alain's coat on him. "Well we do have Stefanie living with us."

"You are still down one." He reminded his wife. She had found Sam's young victim and had slowly brought the girl into their lives. Stef had finally given in when she had helped Elizabeth's guard when she went into labor at Kelly's. Now the young girl was a sophomore at PCU, and with Lainey's help dealing with the past.

"Maybe I will have twins this time." She said smugly. Seeing his expression, she said "No, I don't know anything you don't know."

Hearing his phone ringing, she took Alain so that he could answer it. Whatever was said soon had him looking at her worried. Seeing Alain down, she said what is it as soon as the phone call was over.

"How are things with Maxie?"

"She is still missing her sister, why?" Maxie had been suicidal after Georgie's return and quick exit. Elizabeth had been the one to get through to the girl who was now dating Matt Hunter and well on her way to being a normal human being again.

She had confessed all she had done in the past to Elizabeth the day she had stood on the top of the Metrocourt hotel and tried to jump. Jax had pulled the blond back in, he had been going to take his helicopter up to Montreal when he had seen her.

Elizabeth had forgiven her and as the younger girl finally got the mental health help she should have gotten years ago, they had declared a truce.

"That was Johnny Zachara, he found Georgie. They are together and neither is ready to come home, but he wanted us to tell Mac that they got married and are expecting."

Elizabeth all but fell down she was so astonished. "Georgie? Johnny, how? You only talked to him two days ago?"

"Turns out they have been together, traveling the entire time. That was why he dropped out of sight. They meet at the airport." He said shaking his head. "When he called the other day, he chickened out in regards to telling us."

"Maxie, wow. She is not going to take this well. She still has hope that the old Georgie will come home."

Jason arrived at the Jacks residence to pick up the boys, knowing that their presence was helping Morgan cope with his losses. First they had lost Michael, his body had grown weaker, and then Carly had killed herself when she had miscarried days later. She had walked into the front of a bus, completely despondent upon hearing that she would never have another child.

"Thanks for letting them come over." Said a weary Jax. He still felt guilty about Carly, having saved Maxie but not his wife.

"We know that it helps." Said Jason. He still felt horrible about his old friend. Elizabeth had suggested that she would need some help but the blond had ignored her and Jason hadn't pushed either Jax or her about it.

Soon the boys were home running around waiting for their grandparents to join them along with their aunts. Hearing the sound Grandma Monica talking to Grandma Audrey they rushed out to greet them. "Guess what, Mommy is sick again."

"What?" Asked Monica worried they should have canceled until she saw her daughter and Robin leaving the kitchen talking. "What is wrong with Elizabeth?"

"Baby Morgan on the way again." Said Robin still shocked. Alain was barely a year old and they were having another one.

Sitting down to dinner, Elizabeth asked. "Robin, how is Maxie doing?"

"Fine, she is busy planning her wedding. Talk about the bride from h*ll, this is going to be huge." She said watching as Patrick faked being scared.

Telling them what was going on, Robin knew that this news would hurt Maxie. Lowering her voice, she said "Jax had lunch with Nadine this week."

"I know, but I am not sure it is what you think." She said. "I hope I am wrong, but Jax is still carrying a lot of guilt about Carly. You know that they had been fighting for months before that."

Nodding, they were joking about Kelly and Cody getting caught by Spinelli in the office and that the younger man had been rushed to the hospital for stitches to a head wound when he had tried to back away unseen.

"Have you talked to Lulu since her return with Ethan?"

"No, I saw them with Spinelli and we waved but I think she sees me as a reminder of her brother. Nik said she avoids discussing Lucky at all costs."

"I think that he is still reeling from the mess with Emily marrying Leo. That was one I wasn't expecting especially since the last woman I ever heard of his being interested in was you."

"I had no idea." said Elizabeth as she asked Robin about Mac. "I know that with Max and Diane broke up that they went out a few times."

"Nothing happened. He also went out with the old Mayor's wife as well."

"Scary woman." said Elizabeth. "Cold as ice."

Jason was talking to his mother watching as Robin and his wife talked to Patrick and Julian who joined them. Seeing Alexis walking over and handing the phone to Julian, he saw the man laugh then hang up and announce they were leaving.

Kissing his daughter, he whispered something in her ear and Jason saw her look up at him then she whispered something back.

Once the party had cleared out, Jason found himself dragged out to the garage where a nice and shiny motorcycle stood. Bright red with a matching helmet. "Do you think I will ever learn to ride it." she said touching her small stomach.

"Not if I have my way." he said leaning in to kiss her. "I figure I will just keep your pregnant, that should keep you off that bike.

Elizabeth found herself pinned to the back of the SUV as Jason kissed his way down her neck

"That is just gross." said an incoming Stephanie as she parked. "Hasn't any one ever told you that if you are going to make out, at least be inside the car. 'sides, she is already pregnant."

"You do know that I can make you disappear?" threatened Jason from where he was standing.

Laughing she said "Yes, but then who would be around to annoy you?"

"I have a whole list of people that do that. You are a very small cog on that list." he said with a smile. "I would have thought Diane would have kept you busy longer."

"The slave driver is sending me to New York tomorrow morning, now I am going to play with Cameron." she said blowing a raspberry at the man who had become like a bossy older uncle to her. "Night Elizabeth."

"Night Stef." she said laughing. "Wait, can you keep an eye on the boys for a while. The guards are here and so is my grams."

"Sure, where are you going?"

"To take your suggestion." Driving away, Jason drove out the cliff roads to the old bridge and soon got to do something he didn't recall getting to do ever. He finally made love in a car. "Elizabeth, next time we should move to the back seat."

Catching her breath, she replied. "Well, I am going first." with that she slipped into the back as Jason chuckled then joined her.

"I love pregnancy hormones." was the last thing heard out of either of them for the next two hours as they made up for lost time. Then Jason pulled her into his arms and grabbed the boys blanket out of the back so that they could cuddle before heading home.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The End


End file.
